Darkness Rising: Cursed Guardians

Recovery

My alarm buzzed and I jerked up to check on Draco. He was still sleeping so I decided I should do the same. Every hour on the hour I checked on Draco and his wounds. They were looking better but I wanted to clean the wounds again. It had been nearly 24 hours since I applied he ointment. I decided to let him sleep just a little bit longer but as I sat back down he moved. Blinking a few times he tried to push up and dropped back down with a groan. Immediately I jumped up and went to the side of the bed. “Whoa Draco.” I say trying to keep him down. “You can’t be trying to push up like that. You’ve got too many open wounds.” His head snaps to me and his vision which appears foggy begins to clear. “Sabella?” I can tell things are hazy. “Yup your favorite witch.” I smirk. “How do you feel about getting up? I need to get you into the shower so we can clean your wounds again. We can talk if you’re up to it after then.” He blinks a few times and nods. “I’m gonna help you up okay? I’ve got you so don’t worry about me.” Again a little nod. I ease his legs over the side of the bed, grab his hands and gently pull him up. I can see the pain on his face and the effort he is going to to try and and hide it. “Stand on three” I say as put his arm around my shoulder. “1, 2, 3” and up we stood. And wobbled. And nearly fell back down. “Okay hard part done now let’s get to the bathroom.” He grumbled but moved when I did. Overall an improvement from earlier. In the bathroom I lean him in the same spot as before on the counter and slowly I began removing the bandages. Things were healing but I could see there were barbs that I’d need to remove. First things first. Shower again, clean the wounds, take out the barbs, reapply the ointment and bandages. I stand Draco up and turn him to finish removing the remaining bandages. Once that’s done I guide him into the shower and onto the bench. Ditching the boxers and shirt I get into the shower and turn the water back on. Grabbing the shower head I turn to Draco to begin cleaning the wounds. I’m a little startled to see his eyes open and watching me. 

“You with me Puff?” I ask as I start the move the water gently over his body. He winced but doesn’t move. “I’m with you witch” he grates out. Barely a whisper given there was a deep wound on his throat. Well this is progress. Just as I had before I began washing his wounds. The difference was that this time Draco was more aware of what was going on. He still had a glassy eyed look but not checking out on me just extremely tired. Once the ointment was washed away I had him stand and lean on the wall. I lathered the soap in my hands and washed him going as gently as possible. Rinsing him off I guide him back to the bench. 

Turning my attention to myself I wash myself down and turn to grab shampoo and once again find Draco’s eyes on me. Not going to focus on that. Too many issues. Just wash and focus on Draco. I quickly rinse off, turn off the water, and hop out of the shower to grab towel. I wrap myself in a towel and help Draco from the shower. Again leaning him on the counter I gently dry him. This time I grab a comb from the counter and run it through his hair and then mine before throwing it into a bun again. 

All the while he watches me. Not super intense still foggy but watching non the less. “Do you think you can stand for a minute?” I ask him. I need to get the sheets off the bed. He nods and I make a dash for the bedroom. I rip the sheets from the bed and toss them aside. Thankfully there are two mattress padS that have saved the mattress. Judging from the shower he’s still bleeding but not buckets full like before. Running back to the bathroom I check that Draco is still standing and grab loads of towels. Laying them onto the mattress I grab the discarded blankets I tossed earlier I lay them down on the mattress.  Again mad dash to the bathroom to wrap Draco’s arm around me and help him back to the bed, laying him just as gently as before. Still watching me. I run back to his closet and grab another shirt and pair of boxers. “Okay so we’re gonna have a repeat of before. I’m going to remove these barbs and then put ointment and bandages on.” I put my hand in his. “Squeeze my hand when it hurts.” 

He nods and I start removing the barbs. The wounds are aren’t as angry and seem to be starting to close. Good. Bad. I’m going to have to dig these barbs out. As I go down the body he squeezes my head several times but I continue. When I get to his groin I pause and go up beside him never letting go of his hand. He’s still watching me.  “Hey.” I say “How you doing?” I c**k my head to one side. “Here.” He rasps. “Okay I’m gonna level with you. There are barbs embedded in the wounds. I need to dig them out. It’s going to be painful. Very, very painful but I’ve gotta get them out.” I wait and stroke his cheek careful not to hit any wounds. He doesn’t flinch just looks at me and nods. “Okay.” I say and proceed. The barbs are deep and I have to dig. He squeezes my hand so hard I’m afraid my fingers will break but I manage to get the barb with the tweezer and pull it out. Draco stifles a scream. I immediately drop the tweezer and go by his face to see it contorted in pain. I smooth his hair and begin to hum. Soft and smooth I hum until his face relaxes. After he calms I go back to his legs to removing the barbs. This time before I turn him I apply the ointment and bandages. Once done I help him turn and repeat the process. Still humming, still holding his hand. Several times he squeezes my hand and several times he stifles screams. Each time I pause to calm him stroking his face and humming. When the task is finally complete I help him back onto his back but sit him up slightly so I can get behind him and lean him against my chest. 

Grabbing the tweezers I once again use the point to cut open my wrist and bring it to his lip. He groans at me, clearly not happy about this. Sighing I say "Listen. The blood is helping you. Your body hasn't recovered enough for your natural healing to kick in.  Unless you have a better solution this is the best I've got. And to be honest it's still not up for debate." I finish and move my wrist back to his lips. Again a deep inhale before he takes my wrist and begins to suck, drawing blood with each pull. This time there's a deep, throaty, moan that leaves him. My body suddenly shoots awake at him feeding from me goes into hyper drive at the noise. My n*****s harden, my heart rate kicks up, and the throbbing between my legs becomes almost unbearable. Another deep inhale and a deeper draw of blood and what almost sounds like a growl comes from Puff. Holy. s**t. All I can do is focus on calming my heart back down and reminding myself I am taking care of Draco. After a while he slows and then releases my wrist. I move out from behind him and ease him all the way onto his back. His eyes are closed again, breathing evenly, sleeping once again.  Gathering the bowls and returning to the bathroom I start cleaning up. At this point I also realize the bathroom is wreck. I gather up the remnants of the clothes I'd found Draco in as well as my own and bring them out to the bedroom. Adding to the pile I toss in the ruined sheets and bandages and place everything in a pile by the balcony door before turning around to go back into the bathroom. Once there I go searching under the sinks and cabinets until I'm able to locate a bottle of bathroom cleaner and a scrub brush. Then I commence scrubbing the entire bathroom to rid the beautiful space of any trace of blood.

After the bathroom is cleaned to my satisfaction, I make my way back to the bedroom and am hit with the smell of food. Draco is still sleeping showing no sign of moving. Following the smell I locate a small serving tray set on his desk. A platter of carved roasted chicken, whole roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli with a pitcher of water sat in the center of the tray. My mouth was salivating.  Without thinking I grabbed a piece of chicken and gobbled it down in seconds. I did feel bad about eating my patients food but I also couldn't remember the last time I ate. 4 potatoes and  a couple of pieces of broccoli later and I felt better. Moving to the bed I started checking the bandages. The wounds on Draco's beautiful face were nearly gone as were the lesser wounds on his torso. His legs and groin were still concerning. Deep and angry. I suspected there were still some barbs I'd need to removed. Hopefully his upper back will be healing like his torso. I already knew the backs of his legs would be the same as the front. A lot of anger had been unleashed on his lower half almost as if to keep him from escaping. Picking up my phone I go back to my perch on the chair beside the bed. It's been about 2 hours since Draco fell asleep. Keeping track of time has been interesting. I noticed that during the night the windows were clear allowing natural moonlight and the lights outside to filter through. At dawn some kind of mechanism caused the windows to black out. Based on the time I was a few hours away from entering into day 3 of reviving Draco. So much for unpacking I think shaking my head. I answered a few text messages from my cousins and one from Demetri asking if I was okay. Ha. Okay is a relative term right? If so then yeah I was okay. Exhausted and worried out of my mind but okay. I will say the down time gave me the opportunity to brain storm some ideas for when my family got here and how to ease everyones transition. I smiled at my idea because I loved it so that means it would either be awesome or blow up in my face. Checking Draco once more I settle into the chair and set my alarm for 2 hour increments and nod off.

A soft groan roused me from my nap. I shot up and to the bed. Draco was rubbing his eyes and yawning. Well that's an amazing improvement. Using his arms and only minimal pain. Excellent.  I glance at the phone in my hand. 30 minutes left of this nap making him have slept another 12 hours. I turn off the alarm on my phone and toss it onto the chair. The movement gets Draco's attention."Hey" I say as I start removing bandages."Hey" he says a more normal voice than before. Removing the bandage around his neck I can see the wound has all but healed, only a faint red line where the deep gash had been remains. Draco studies me as I continue to remove bandages on his shoulder."How are you feeling?" I ask him. Stopping to examine one of the deeper wounds on his chest that hasn't quite closed yet."Uncomfortable." He replies. That makes me pause and I look him in the eyes."Because of me?" I decide I'm going to keep going even if he is uncomfortable. I hate that I make him feel so but these wounds need attending to and he was not going to go to hospital wing."Not entirely." he says. Then continues. " Anyone seeing me like...that is uncomfortable but I was mostly referring to the stiffness in my joints and my legs hurt like a bitch." At this point I've reached the wound on his groin. Well this is going to be a bit more awkward since he's more alert. I steal a look at him. Eyes still foggy but I know he is definitely more present than the last two days. Oh well. Here we go. Removing the bandage "I'm sorry. I know having anyone see you like this is horrible. I was going to take you to the hospital wing but you were very adamant that wasn't going to happen. I wasn't going to let you bleed to death and die so here we are. I'm also sorry you're stiff. I couldn't risk opening the wounds manipulating your arms and legs." There are definitely a few more barbs here that need to come out. Moving to the worst of the leg wounds I can see barbs there too. Continuing "There are still barbs embedded in some of the wounds on your legs. After the wounds are cleaned out I can remove them. These look like the last of those fuckers so it should alleviate the pain in your legs once they are out. I'm gonna need to turn you over so i can see how your back is looking. You ready to turn?" I look up at him and he nods. I get my hands under him and begin to turn him as I have been but he does more of the work this time. As I assumed his back and shoulders are almost healed but the wounds on his ass and legs still have barbs. One more cleaning and removal out to do it. "Ready to turn back over?" I ask. He starts moving in answer so I grab his hip and shoulder and help ease him down. I'm feeling loads better that the wounds are doing so well. Time to clean out the wounds. I look at him and tell him "You hang here a second I'm going to get the shower going." With that I head for the bathroom, grabbing the bandages I'd just removed and putting them with all the other bloody things in the corner, and get the water running and some towels out. Back in the bedroom Draco has started using his massive arm muscles to gradually back himself up towards the headboard in an effort to sit up. Based on the sweat on his forehead he's not there just yet, most likely because of the injuries on his lower half. I clear my throat"What part of hang here did you miss? You need to NOT stress your body by trying to move it." I say walking over to the bed. "Arms around my neck so you can sit up then I'll swing your legs over the side. When you're ready we'll go into the bathroom." He scowled at me but complied. Once he was sitting up and had his hands braced behind him on the bed I moved his legs. There was a considerable amount of groaning in discomfort and he broke out in a sweat again as his head dropped forward.. Given the damage I couldn't blame him. The fact that in all this time he hadn't screamed but merely moan in pain was astonishing. Kneeling in front of him and bracing his shoulders so he didn't fall over I start talking again. "I'd ask how you're doing but that would just be dumb." I say. He half chuckles. "I think the sooner we can clean out these wounds and I can get the last of those barbs out the better. I'm gonna put your arm around my neck and were gonna head for the shower okay?" I move to his side and begin to prep him to stand. He turns his head and says to me "I'm going to crush you." I let out a small laugh "babe I have been taking you back and forth from the bathroom to bed like this for 3 days and thats not even taking into account going up the secret stairs which I am not entirely sure how we managed without tumbling backwards to our deaths. Now 3, 2, 1 up." I finish and hoist him up. "You should know after my first night here I might be small and look innocent but you shouldn't under estimate me." I tell him as we go to the bathroom where I lean him against the counter so I can ditch my borrowed clothes then leading him into the shower to sit on the bench.

Just as I did every time I washed him head to toe taking care around the worst of his wounds. This time I also shampoo his hair to get the last of the dried blood out. Once done I turn with my back to him take my hair down and start washing myself and my hair. I am extremely aware as he watches me.Though he is not fully alert he is very near it. Gulp.  He watched me as I washed him but now he was trying very hard to focus on me. I have to choke down my self consciousness and fears as I continue to wash and rinse. When I was done I turned off the water and went over to Draco to help him stand and then exited the shower leaning him once more against the counter. Wrapping myself in a towel I grab the other one I set out and start drying him off same as I did the other times. I have to admit this was much easier when he was somewhat in control although his legs shook from the effort making me move a touch faster. Dry enough I throw his arm over my shoulder and lead him back to the bedroom so he can lay down once more.  I grab the bowls, bandages, ointment, and tweezers and prep to remove the last barbs. 

I grab Draco's hand to hold just I did before although this time I'm not sure if he'll hold it. Part of me was sure he'd held because he didn't know really who the hand belong to although I hoped that wasn't the case. To my surprise he grabs hold. I look at his face. He has his eyes closed. All the movement and the barbs making their way to the surface of the unclosed wounds took a lot out of him. "Ready?" I ask. He opens his eyes and nods. Several very strong hand squeezes later I dig the last barb out of the back of Draco's leg and apply the ointment and bandage and get him back onto his back. This time I grab some pillows to sit him up a bit. I grab the supplies and head to the bathroom as he gently adjusts himself on the pillows.