Nice to Sea You || Bex & Teagan ft. Mina
TIMING: Last Sunday, early afternoon
PARTIES: @inbextween @teaganmyrick @drowningisinevitable
SUMMARY: Bex brings Teagan flowers, but bad luck keeps following her and Mina needs to step in to help.
WARNINGS: Medical Blood, Chronic Illness, Gore, CPR (labeled)
Bex knew she probably shouldn’t have been out, what with her energy being so low, but she wanted to personally check up on Teagan and see for herself that she was okay. She sort of figured she would be like Mina, and just say she was okay even if she wasn’t. As long as she believed she was, it wasn’t a lie. Bex was relearning how these things worked. She’d stopped along the way to pick up a bouquet of flowers for her, some nice winter colors with purple and blue and white. She didn’t know if Teagan liked flowers, but she supposed she’d find out. She was brushing her fingers through them as she walked when she paused, glancing around. For a moment, just a small moment, she’d forgotten what she was doing, where she was going. Blinking, she shook her head. Teagan’s, she was going to see Teagan.
Shaking off the strange feeling, she headed down the stairs to the docks, reading the address on her phone. Boats having addresses was strange, but she’d seen stranger things, really. Especially in this town. When she thought she’d found the right one, she stepped awkwardly onto the boat and came up to the door, knocking on it. Shifting her weight, holding up the flowers and a smile for when Teagan answered the door.
The knock on the door startled Teagan a little. She wasn’t expecting company, and she was laser focused on a project she received. The frames due for the day were finally finished with hours to spare, so she set to have them export before she pulled herself from the small desk, and tended to her visitor. “Oh,” Seeing Bex on the other side of the door made her quirk her head with confusion, but she opened the door with a smile. The flowers made it grow and she couldn’t help but feel compelled to hug her. She looked tired though, like a gust of wind could cause her to trip. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be resting and not bringing me flowers, little peanut?” An even bigger grin, accompanied with a soft giggle formed at the little nickname. Bex reminded her of her sisters and how they teased one another. It was easy with her, came naturally, and though she wished she could behave that way with Mina, it was close enough. And maybe, with time, the two could have their own little nicknames for one another.
“Come in, it’s cold! I have the woodstove on if you’d like some tea.” Teagan ushered Bex inside, closing the door as the two stood in the small entrance. The boat swayed subtly with the waves, something she was used to. “Please sit, get off your feet. I’ll put the kettle on.”
At first, Bex thought Teagan might’ve been upset. All she said was oh and Bex suddenly worried if this had been a bad idea. She had just wanted to check up on her, that was all. Was she bothering her? Was she a nuisance? Did Teagan resent Bex for being close to Mina? But then she smiled and Bex perked up, crinkling her nose. “Peanut? I am not a peanut,” she pouted, sticking her lip out. But, really, she liked it. She had never had a sibling, and while she now had friends, who might have acted like them sometimes, Teagan outright admitted to seeing Bex as a younger sibling. And it felt nice. Bex wanted family. Bex wanted that family so bad. She smiled. “Tea sounds great,” she said as she headed in, holding out the flowers to Teagan. “I brought these for you. Thought they might make a nice center piece or something. And, well, who doesn’t like flowers, right?” She shook her head. “Oh, I’m okay! I’m okay, really. I just get tired real fast. It’s nothing big.” And she didn’t have her magic, but she was being safe. It was the middle of the day and she’d stuck to crowded streets. She was being as safe as she could. “How are you? How is your neck?”
Teagan loved the way Bex reacted to her teasing, like she was the sister she had been looking for. And perhaps it wasn’t fair to look at it that way, Mina needed time. So the nix reconstructed the thought, seeing the witch as an added gift to finding her sister, an unexpected blessing. Just like the flowers she had brought with her. “You are a little peanut to me,” A bright smile formed, “And I appreciate the flowers! They’re lovely. Almost as lovely as seeing you.” She was always polite out of general necessity, but it was genuine and even adoring with Bex. If everything worked out, she would be her little sister-in-law, after all. Taking the flowers, she placed them carefully on the counter and filled the kettle with water, before placing it on the woodstove to heat up. “I hope you like lavender tea. It pairs well with honey. I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I tried a lavender latte at the coffee shop with Anita.” She paused, hoping she wouldn’t get teased but expecting it anyway. “Plus it’s very relaxing.”
The bite on her neck hadn’t healed all that much. Breaking away from the boat was difficult when she was feeling a little too down and distracted. Teagan brushed her fingers over the fresh bandages and sighed, sitting down on the couch. “My neck is okay. I’ve been a little too distracted to get into some water long enough to really make a difference in my healing. But what about you? You were the one who actually got hurt.”
Bex handed Teagan the flowers and followed the older girl in, glancing around the little house. “Wow, it’s, like, much bigger on the inside. It’s really cute! Kinda makes me wanna live in one, except that I don’t know how to swim and am afraid of the ocean. And also Mina hates the ocean.” She remembered Mina telling her about when she’d fallen off the cliff into the ocean and how painful it had felt. She supposed the cuts and wounds didn’t help. She wouldn’t mention that, though. “I’m neither little, nor a peanut,” she said, huffing, but she couldn’t help but smile through it. “Lavender is great! I love lavender tea. Especially lavender milk tea. Just, you know, with not milk. Like milk alternatives. Oat milk is my favorite, have you ever tried oatmilk? Like, soy is okay, but it’s so sweet and doesn’t taste like milk, and I’m not a big almond fan so I don’t drink almond milk, either. But oatmilk is really good! And, uh– you probably don’t care about that, sorry. But Anita! Have you been talking to her online? How soon is your dance date?”
She shuffled awkwardly for a moment, before turning to look back at Teagan. “I’m glad you’re doing okay. Why are you so distracted? Did something else happen? I brought some of my guardian’s famous salve for you, too, actually,” she said, digging through her purse to pull out a little jar of greenish liquid. “If you put it on like, twice a day, it’ll help with the scarring and the pain.” Shaking her head, she added, “I’m fine, really. I didn’t get like, hurt hurt. I just heal kinda slow. And, like, my magic sort of comes back, but there’s so little of it, and then it just goes away and I get tired all over again.”
The amount of talking didn’t faze Teagan in the slightest. With the number of siblings she had, overtalking and listening to multiple people’s thoughts was just a part of being a sister. Everyone wanted to be heard and she always had an ear to lend. “The ocean isn’t kind to us, so I have to agree with her distaste. But this place was cheap, on some sort of water, and didn’t require a long-term agreement.” Just in case Mina asked her to leave and she had to depart at a moment’s notice. Bex kept talking and she didn’t even get a chance to implore her to learn how to swim. But she smiled. The witch had so much to say and the nix had so much to learn. “I do care. You’re very adorable and I’d be more than happy to listen to you ramble. But you’ve got to let me call you little peanut.” Carefully, she placed a gentle hand on Bex’s shoulder and patted her soothingly to distract. A finger lightly poked the girl’s forehead and Teagan laughed. “Gotcha! And I do like oatmilk. Prefer it, even. It’s creamy and better and I think it makes pastries taste sweeter.” She blushed a little at the mention of Anita and her distractions. Scales slowly formed on her shoulders and neck to join the dusting on her cheeks.
Teagan took a deep breath before giving her an explanation, her scales receding slowly. “Well, Anita’s been coming over. And even spent the night. In my bed. And she held me. So…” She shrugged a little awkwardly, taking the salve and feeling the warmth fill her chest at being so cared for by someone who could have her defenses up. Just like her life partner. “I really appreciate this. Twice a day. Got it.” She clasped the container in her hands tightly, turning to get a better look at Bex. “And, um, I’m really glad you’re okay. I was worried about you and even if you do look a little tired, it’s nice to see you upright and walking. Sorry if that’s weird. I’ve grown rather fond of you is all.”
“Cheap is good, definitely good,” Bex nodded eagerly. “If you need help paying for anything, though, you can just ask me. I sort of am sitting on a lot of money from my parents.” Her parents who weren’t actually her real parents, something that Bex still had a difficult time reconciling with. Maybe it was because she didn’t know her real parents at all. The only picture she’d seen of her mother was in Odell’s office, stuffed in the back of a book, and she’d only seen it once. Bex didn’t remember what she looked like, just that her name was Odette and she left when she was young. She shook the thought off. “That doesn’t sound like a fair trade to me,” she teased, sticking her tongue out. As a hand was laid on her shoulder, Bex couldn’t help the stiffening of her muscles, trying her best not to flinch away. But at this point, it was still muscle memory. She stayed stiff as Teagan poked her forehead, trying to shake off the feeling. She gave an attempt at a smile. “That one totally didn’t count.”
Bex watched as scales receded the more Teagan relaxed. She wondered if she’d be able to teach Mina how to do that, remembering how disgruntled Mina was about her scales not going away at the moment. “She stayed with you?” she asked, perking up a bit. “Well that’s a big step! Are you meeting with her again soon?” She smiled again, touched by the concern. She had lots of people now who cared about her, but it never stopped amazing her when they did. She’d figured herself worthless almost her entire life, and now she had people who told her she was worth more than the world to them. “It’s not weird at all. I was worried about you, too.”
Bex’s stilted posture at what was supposed to be an affectionate gesture sank Teagan’s heart a little. She’d seen that reaction before. On someone who’d taken the palm of a hand too many times. “It did count,” cheeks pulled into a smile, not wanting to draw attention to her body’s response. “You’re just upset that I managed to win so quickly.” She stuck her tongue out playfully and scooted away to give Bex her space in hopes that it might make her feel more secure. But now it was her turn to stiffen as she was teased once again. Getting poked at so constantly would probably benefit her, she thought. She’d become immune eventually. Hopefully. “We take walks together every other night around the lake. She even offered to have me come over and stay the night. You actually caught me at a great time. I would be over there now, but I got a project and needed to work.”
The kettle whistled and Teagan stood to prepare the tea, continuing conversation as she removed the kettle from the stovetop and retrieved mugs. “It’s a little strange to have someone worried. I’m always the worrier.” She poured the tea, the flow stopping abruptly at the sound of thrashing against the boat’s walls. What had been poured rippled with each thud, rattling the glass on the counter. “Wonder what that could be. Doesn’t sound like knocking.” She unsheathed her knife and readied it immediately. Preparation was the key to countering the element of surprise. “Stay there.” Every step to the door was careful, peeking through the peephole but seeing nothing. The walls rattled again causing her to jump back and look cautiously at Bex.
Bex was grateful Teagan didn’t say anything about her reaction, even though she knew she’d noticed it. Especially when she scooted away to give Bex her space. She wished she could be easy about these things, she really did, but her body seemed to have a mind of its own about these things. Her therapist told her it would likely persist for a while, but there were exercises and tricks she could use to calm herself down and make it easier. Bex ticked her fingers along her thumb and counted each one in her head before letting her shoulders relax and looking back at Teagan. “Only because you cheated,” she said with a pout, though she was still smiling. Her mind was relaxed, she just wished her body would, too. “Wait, wait, wait– you’re saying you see her almost daily, and you’ve spent the night with her several times, and you’re still not sure she likes you back? Jeez, I don’t think even I was that oblivious, dummy,” she teased, chuckling. “She definitely likes you. And it seems like you definitely like her, too.”
Bex watched her stand to retrieve the tea as the pot whistled, leaning back against the chair she’d sat in. “Worrying is like, my default state. Just ask Mina. Or anyone, really. I can’t help it. I worry, I’m a professional worrier–” the loud thump! interrupted her thought, though and she looked at Teagan questioningly. “What is that?” A knife was drawn before Bex could register the rhythmic thumping against the wall, standing up slowly and finding herself lacking the same energy she’d had when she’d gotten there. She rubbed her eyes. “What is it? Can you see anything?”
“Dummy? That was uncalled for!” Teagan exaggerated her offense, making it obvious that she wasn’t hurt by any means. All things said were in jest, on a subject that was becoming amusingly confusing. Anita made her feel good and the guilt that gnawed at her for years was beginning to become a soft hum, lessening with each interaction. “I don’t know. Maybe.” Eyes rolled and scales trickled over the skin on her arms from both the butterflies and the anxiety about what could be outside. Claws extended too, an added precaution. Being proactive with her anxiety meant that she could be several steps ahead and think on the fly. She understood that default state Bex spoke of. That was her existence too. That was what made her a good protector, a good fighter.
Teagan was a bit perplexed by the absence of anything at her door, but the state of Bex’s well-being took precedence when it looked like she was trying to adjust her eyes. The nix returned to her side, hovering a careful and clawed hand above her shoulder. “You should sit down. I’ll—” Another thump, and another, and another. “I’ll check what that is.” As quietly as she could, she went back to the door and opened it slowly. Still nothing. The thudding became a bang! Only to be followed by several more. Eyes trailed the sounds, landing on a disgustingly slimy creature with unsettling human teeth. A torple. But she didn’t know it by name. She ran back inside and shut the door quickly. “I don’t know what that thing is, but it has a lot of teeth.”
“I don’t believe it was at all,” Bex said back, but her focus was much more on the loud thumping at this point, as it grew louder and more desperate. “Maybe someone needs help? What if they’re hurt?” she asked, looking to Teagan, watching claws come out. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good if she was doing that. Bex knew that from watching Mina, how tense she became when her claws came out. In protection mode. It wasn’t unsimilar to Teagan right now. Bex stayed behind her, trying to see out the window and wondering if she could see what it was, what it might be. But Teagan was moving her back towards the other side of the boat. Bex raised a brow, but stayed put as the older girl opened the door.
Bex jumped at the bang, stumbling back into the table and catching it to stay standing upright. She looked around, but could see nothing, when Teagan came bolting back in, slamming the door shut. “It– what? Teeth? What do you mean has a lot of teeth? What is it?”
“I don’t know.” Teagan said, a little exasperated as she pressed her back against the door. The torple bashed its body against it, shaking the entire place. It seemed to almost follow wherever Bex was, moving along the perimeter to keep up. Further confirmed by the way it shifted away from its place of origin. If that was the case, the nix felt like she needed to take care of the creature. Fast. “It-it was slimy and—no eyes.” A deep breath, “ I’ll take care of it, but you’ll have to stay here, okay?” She hoped maybe Bobbi didn’t see what was happening, that she could be swift enough to bring the torple its end without casualty.
Teagan took a few deep breaths, slipping into her role and growing taller. The door opened a little harshly, threatening, even. Surprise overtook the torple and it bounced back, only taking a blink to recover and bound forward at the same time as Teagan. Her blade pierced its skin, coating her hand in its slime. Maintaining any grip was near impossible, but she kept her blade and body in place to use it as leverage. Air went still, and it was like she could see the single track the torple’s mind was on. A path that led straight to the young woman. It just kept pushing into her blade, kept pushing to get to Bex. Her face contorted into discomfort and strain at the difficulty of keeping her stance and purchase, with limbs and teeth becoming more and more difficult to deflect.
“Slimy?” Bex said, and something was scratching at the back of her mind. She knew this, she knew what it was. She did but she couldn’t remember. Her head pounded, a splitting pain that shot from her temple to her eyes and she pressed her palms against them, shaking her head. “Wait, no, don’t open the–” but it was too late. Teagan was flinging the door open and the creature was lunging inside. It made a squelching noise as flesh met knife and Bex shuddered, wincing. She remembered. It was a torple. It wanted to eat her. And it wasn’t just any torple, it was the torple. Bex remembered the shattered gem on its head, the knife wound that had healed in its side. When it had toppled into the ocean, Bex had thought that’d be the last of it, but it must have just stayed here, waiting for her to return. This was the first time she’d been all the way down to the docks since the incident, and even without most of her magic, the creature could smell her. It remembered her, too.
“Fuck,” Bex hissed, climbing over the table. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She whirled around and looked for an exit, she needed to get out. She needed to run. She darted for the sliding glass door in the back, reaching for the handle. But– she couldn’t just leave Teagan. Would it want her? Would it hurt her to get to Bex? She didn’t know. She didn’t know enough. She never knew enough. She had to trust it wouldn’t hurt Teagan. She threw the door open and bolted out, only to be slammed into the side of the boat as a heavy weight knocked against her back. Her head smacked into the guard rail and stars exploded in her vision as she fought to stay standing, the energy quickly sapping from her body. She stumbled against the edge of the boat, the world tilting back and forth as she fought to concentrate on the thing scurrying around her. Blood coated the deck, but none of it was hers. The creature lunged again and Bex ducked under it, scrambling on all fours towards the other side, hands slipping on slick blood. “It won’t stop!” she called out, turning around to keep her eyes on the creature as her back hit the railing. “It only eats magic users and it won’t stop! It hasn’t stopped! I don’t know how to kill it!”
Fear overtook Teagan as the torple slipped out of her reach and beelined towards Bex. She was hurt, on the ground and for a split second, she thought she was bleeding. Sheathing the blade first, her body then lurched forward to tackle the creature, sending the boat swaying a little too much, even for the nix. “If we can’t kill it, we’ll run!” Claws dug in, forcing a screech to pierce the cold air. The sound bit at her hearing, but that didn’t inhibit her ability to toss the thing aside and get to Bex as quickly as possible. To her, it looked like she was about to roll over the railing and fall. That wasn’t good, not at all. She couldn’t swim. “Hold onto me, okay?” Her voice was a little breathless, but still calm as she reached Bex and scooped her arms underneath, raising the witch from her feet.
Teagan whipped her head in multiple directions as she scrambled to get the two of them off the boat. The wound on her neck stung so badly, but she had a role to fill. Failure wasn’t an option. “We’ll get to my car and I’ll drive until we lose it. Just keep holding on.” She tried her best to keep her voice even, to sound calm for Bex. The danger was terrifying, biting at her heels and leaving a trail of slimy destruction as it pursued them.
Bex scrambled up to her feet when Teagan came over and lifted her up, grabbing at the railing again to keep herself standing. Her legs were shaking, arms trembling and the world was gong black around the edges of her vision. “I can’t…” she slurred, tipping back and forth as the boat rocked, “I can’t…” but no more words would come out, her brain too sluggish to come up with the right description of what she was feeling. She couldn’t stand, she couldn’t run, even with the older nix tugging at her and trying to pull her down the boat to the dock. Bex could hear the scrambling of clawed, wet feet on the wooden deck and she looked back for just a moment, stumbling as the boat rocked once more as the torple body slammed itself against the side. Her arm slipped from Teagan’s grasp, and in the next moment, all the air left her lungs as the creature collided with her stomach, knocking her backwards. She slammed into the railing with a crunch and the force of the blow sent her toppling upside down over the rails and into the water.
Saltwater filled her lungs as she gasped. The creature had fallen in beside her again, thrashing about in the waves, chomping down on empty space as it searched for its meal. Bex twisted as much as she could in the water, kicking her legs out, and letting out a torrent of bubbles in a silent scream as teeth clamped soundly onto her arm. Bone crunched underneath its vice grip and blood stained the water around her. Bex’s vision faded faster and faster, despite the pain coursing through her body. She went limp, wishing she could’ve winced at the sound of bone cracking, shattering under the jaw of this creature. Instead, her world went black and her back hit the bottom of the ocean.
Eyes widened as Bex fell into the deadly water, but Teagan didn’t even hesitate. She dove in, ignoring the way her skin begged at her to return to the surface, like it was cracking and being torn to shreds with every second that passed. No air could reach her lungs and it was growing difficult to keep sinking to reach the young spellcaster. Upon seeing the torple tear at her though, she gripped her knife and waded quickly to ward it off. Bellows of bubbles clouded her vision, but she could feel that the attention was on her now. Amidst the thrashing, the blade turned on her and thrust into her side with the torple’s aid. A silent scream turned into a gurgle, no echo to be made. It looked like it finally lost its hunger long enough for the nix to grab hold of Bex and pull her through the top layer of water. She took in the biggest breath of her life as she got the two of them out of the water and onto the dock.
[CPR TW]
Teagan cried out, “Bex, wake up. Please!” She wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing. Trembling hands straightened her body and lifted her chin to perform CPR. Her body was numb with adrenaline and her mind was frantic to save someone she cared for. Focus. Focus. With each compression and breath, the fear of failure tightened her chest and welled tears in her eyes until Bex coughed and sputtered water out of her throat. That was the sweetest sound she’d heard in a long time. “Oh thank god. Thank god!”
In the blank void of her unconscious mind, Bex felt a fading memory trying to resurface. She felt as if she were falling, but slowly, so slowly, suspended in time. Her eyes opened to a hazy gleam and she could see the surface up above her, the sun shining lazily through the waves. A shadow cast itself over her, blocking the sunlight. Bex looked up at the shadow and recognized the person’s face, but she couldn’t remember who they were. Who was it, who was it–
Bex coughed and sputtered, water spilling from her mouth as she rolled over to spit it up, clutching her stomach. Her body was shaking, arms trembling, and there was still a great exhaustion clinging to her bones, her muscles. Something was pressing at the back of her eyes, a memory trying to force its way back into her mind. But all it did was make her head scream with pain and Bex grabbed at it, crying out herself. Her eyes felt like they were on fire. She shook her head, reminded of the pain in her arm. “Where-where is it? Is it g-gone?” she asked, her body shivering uncontrollably from the chill of the water and the chill of the air. She looked around for Teagan, then down at her arm. The torple had bitten straight through her coat, her skin, her muscle. She felt sick at the sight. Bone jutted from her arm and she shakily set it back down on her lap, trying not to bump it. Blood was pouring from the hole made by the broken end of her bone. “I have to s-s-stop the b-bleeding.”
[CPR TW END]
The pained cries created heart-throbbing aches in the nix’s chest that pulsed to the rest of her body. Teagan cried quietly with Bex, empathizing with her and shushing her gently while she raked her unclawed hand through the young witch’s hair. “I don’t know.” She replied, inhaling sharply as pain recentered and made itself known. Scales replaced the burn of the salt and wound with momentary relief. The absence of pain was long enough for her to attempt to remove her shirt and utilize it to stem the bleeding. She cried out, realizing her blade was still in her side. Hands trembled, gripping it reluctantly and pulling it out with a shaking whimper.
“We need to get you back to the boat so I can call an ambulance and Mina. I’m so sorry, Bex. I’m sorry.” Every movement was fire as she ripped the shirt and wrapped it around the mauled arm carefully, attempting at resetting what she could without damaging. She felt like she had failed. Bex was alive, but she came out the other side very much worse for wear. “Focus on me, peanut. I’m going to lift you. It’s going to hurt, but I’ll do what I can. We’re going to get you help.” Teagan helped lift Bex to her feet, feeling much weaker than before thanks to the salt and iron. Within mere moments, the pair was back in the boat and by the woodenstove for warmth so she could call for help.
Bex blinked, trying to stave off the darkness that threatened to eat away her vision. It wasn't working very well, but she wanted to stay awake, she needed to stay awake. Teagan's whimper pulled her attention and Bex looked down to see the knife jutting from her side. "Oh gods, y-you-- you're h-hurt t-t-too," she croaked. "And the s-saltwater. You need to soak in fresh w-water." She knew because that was what Mina needed and Teagan was just like Mina. Mina. She wanted Mina. Hands curled into the cloth of Teagan's shirt as Bex cried out when cloth was pressed to her wound. The tie helped slow the bleeding, but it was still oozing and Bex could still see the bone sticking out of the wound.
"No hospital, please. It's not your fault," Bex croaked, voice raw. "It's not, it's not…" she kept repeating herself, even when she cried out as the other girl helped her stand. Tears were mixing with bloody hands as Bex tried her best to wipe them away. "Mina," Bex mumbled, head falling against Teagan, "where's Mina? I need to see...I need to tell her I'm okay. And I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I just wanted to see if you were okay. It's not your fault, it's not." Delirious with blood loss, Bex slumped in the chair by the stove. "I'm sorry, it was after me...I should've killed it...I thought it was dead…"
Teagan shook her head vehemently, “I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay.” She would never leave or abandon anyone she cared about. Never again. She would run until her legs couldn’t go any farther to protect, and then crawl until she just couldn’t anymore. “Don’t worry about me.” Looking down at the wound, and then her iron knife, she grimaced at knowing what she needed to do. “One moment,” She paused, taking a deep breath before skin sizzled as she pressed the blade to cauterize the area. Her hand muffled the high pitched yelp, and she sighed the moment the metal was pulled away. “Keep breathing deeply and slowly. I need to get you help.”
Call was made quickly to the one person Bex wanted while the nix stood in the shower to wash what salt she could off. It was awkward to keep her head out, but it was better than burning constantly. A text was promptly sent after with the address so Bex could be tended to, not bothering to change into dry pants but putting on a new shirt. Teagan’s face contorted to one of concern and guilt, swallowing thickly as her throat became too small. “Hey, hey, no. I just texted Mina, sweet one.” Needing to help, she slipped next to Bex and carefully wrapped a languid arm around the girl to provide a sense of whatever security she could. It burned. It burned so much, but she didn’t care. A little pain never bothered her. Especially when she needed to help.
“No, stop– wait!” Bex tried to reach out for Teagan, but her arm bumped and she cried out, tears automatically filling her eyes from the shock of the pain alone. Fuck it hurt, it hurt so much. She tried to shake it off, shaking her head. “No, no ambulance. Please, just– just Mina. I just want Mina.” She didn’t want to make Mina come rushing to the hospital for her again. She wanted Morgan, too, but she was in another country. She’d have to call her. She wanted her to come home. More tears welled up in Bex’s eyes and she wiped them away with her good hand, blood smearing on her cheeks.
Bex leaned against Teagan when the other girl offered a shoulder, but she felt guilty, looking at the cauterized wound on her side. She could smell the burnt flesh. Another memory tried to pull itself forward in her mind and her vision speckled. A boy, a knife, Mina. Burning flesh, a wound too deep. She was dying. Bex shook her head, sitting up straight, biting her tongue to keep from crying out again. At this point, she needed a frequent flier card for the hospital. She was shivering, still, from the soaked clothes she was still in, but the thought of trying to change seemed an impossible task. She just wanted to sleep. “I’m so tired,” she said, breath stuttering in her chest. Her heart was working too hard, she could feel it. “I’m so tired…”
“No ambulance, sweet girl. Mina is on her way.” Teagan shushed Bex gently, holding her close and feeling just how cold she was. Carefully, she shuffled herself away to get a change of clothes and a heated blanket. “I can help you change if you want. Or you can sit on this and have it wrapped around you, you’ll be nice and toasty.” She wanted to cry seeing the girl so broken and stained with red. But she needed to be strong and level headed for her. She needed to be proactive. “Here.” The blanket was draped over her, plugged in, and turned on as she kneeled down next to Bex. The young witch needed to know she wasn’t alone. “Just stay under this and let me know if you want to attempt to change. Don’t worry about staining anything.”
Teagan walked over to her sink and grabbed a cloth to soak it, returning to Bex promptly and wiping the blood off of her face. When that was done, she moved the injured arm from under the blanket to elevate it on a pillow and continue to stem the bleeding. It was slowing down significantly, but still spilling out more than she’d like. Not to mention, she wasn’t too well versed in resetting bones, only doing it a handful of times with direction. “Are you warm? Keep your mind moving and keep talking. I’m sorry, but you can’t sleep yet. Mina will be here soon. Just a little longer.”
Bex shook her head vehemently. “I d-don’t want to m-move it,” she said, using her chin to gesture to her arm. She couldn’t look at it, it made her feel sick. She remembered the sound of it reverberating under the water as her bone snapped in two. And probably many more pieces. She wished she had the power to mend bone, she’d been reading up on it, on how to do it, in order to help Mina, since the girl seemed to break things so often– but now she supposed she might be out pacing her. And that wasn’t good. Bex was fragile and she knew she was, but all she’d wanted to do was check up on a friend. She grit her teeth and let tears streak down her face.
She used her good arm to pull the blanket around her and hold it in place, curling up on herself a little bit. “I’m o-okay,” she said, teeth chattering, “I’m just t-tired.” She wanted to go to sleep, she wanted to lay down. Her arm was resting on a pillow on the table and she moved enough to lay her head beside it. Her breath was coming up heavy and wheezing and the clenching feeling in her chest was all too familiar. Mina would be upset. She needed her medication. “My p-purse,” she said, “I need the bottle of p-pills.”
At this point, Mina should be used to getting concerning text messages. Still, it always made her stomach sink every time one would come in. She’d been leaning against the edge of the pool, considering getting out or going back under when she checked her phone and saw the message from Teagan, and she’d barely thought anything through as she pulled herself out, rushed inside to grab her keys, and driven to the address that had been provided, bare feet pressing firmly against the pedal as she raced to get there as soon as she could.
And that was how Mina ended up standing outside of a houseboat in the cold, wearing nothing but shorts and a tanktop as she waited for the older nix, her sister, to open the door so that she could see what was wrong. She needed to know what was wrong. She didn’t even know if she was trembling because of the cold or the weather, but her hands were shaking as she knocked on the door and waited for it to open.
Nodding in understanding, Teagan found Bex’s purse hastily and retrieved the pills just as a knock pulled her attention to the door. “That must be Mina.” She handed the pills over and whipped around to rush over, looking a little worse for wear as she practically ripped the door open. Being a protector was all she wanted to be, but Bex did not look like she had done her job correctly. A little selfishly, she hoped Mina wouldn’t hate her for not being able to do enough. It already felt like she was on thin ice, waiting for it to shatter beneath her. “She’s—a creature. Attacked. I tried to—She-she’s sitting over there. Said no ambulance.” Sentences were spoken in a broken manner, unable to be articulated correctly and coming out the way she was thinking them.
Teagan ushered Mina inside, wondering if she should get another set of clothes for her too. The younger nix looked like she had been in the middle of a swim and swiftly came over the moment the call ended. “She-she has a broken arm and-and I think the bite is still hurting her magic.” Her voice was meek, so small as the nixies walked the short distance from the entry to the couch. “A doctor needs to look at her arm. But she was adamant about not going to the hospital.”
Mina followed Teagan inside, taking in the other nix’s appearance before her eyes searched out Bex. “She hasn’t been able to gain her magic back since it happened,” she said, her voice quiet but not showing the amount of panic that she felt. Broken arms could be dealt with. “You–” She looked at Teagan, realizing that all three of them were wet, which wasn’t good in Teagan and Bex’s case. “You need to rinse the salt water off of you before it dries out your skin too much.” And she didn’t say it, but, really, a houseboat on the ocean was such a silly place for a nix to live. Even Mina knew that, and she wasn’t that good at being a nix. “It’s okay. I’ll see about her, alright?”
Then Mina finally turned to Bex, making sure she had her pills. She knelt down beside her. “You need to take those, and then I need to see your arm,” she said. Then they needed to get Bex warm, and quickly. She looked at the arm that was wrapped up, seeing the way that blood was already staining. “Can you tell me what happened?” she asked, knowing that if Bex could talk to her for a bit, then it’d be easier to assess what was wrong. “You know, this isn’t really what resting looks like, right?”
Bex heard voices but they were muffled in her drowsy state. She was having a hard time keeping her eyes open, feeling more and more tired by the minute. She didn’t think she could really get more tired without actually passing out, but she needed to stay awake. Despite wanting to sleep. She wanted nothing more than to sleep and to curl up in Mina’s arms. She wanted Mina.
And then Mina was here. Bex saw her just barely in her cloudy vision. Everything was still hazy, but Mina’s face was clear and sharp as Bex blinked to focus. “Mina,” she said and she smiled through the wheezing in her chest. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to bring her flowers. I thought it was safe…” she muttered, her words slurring together. “Just bad luck, I guess.” She could feel herself growing loopier by the second, her body still shivering even under the heated blanket. Her eyes went to her arm, and the blood stained cloth wrapped around it. “It’s not good,” she said, trying to sit up a little. A trembling hand reached out for her pills. “It’s still alive. The–” she swallowed, throat dry– “the torple. It was here. It bit my arm. Kn-knocked me into the water.”
“I’m fine. Already rinsed.” Teagan answered quickly, not particularly used to any sort of concern. Though she’d be lying, and it hurt to lie, if she said it didn’t bring a warmth to her chest. Mina cared, even if it was out of moral obligation. Better than nothing, she supposed.
Teagan used her small microwave to reheat the lukewarm tea as the couple spoke. “I jumped in after her when she fell in.” She muttered a little dejectedly, still disappointed in herself. But she had a task to focus on, so she shifted her attention back on it. Bex needed to take her medicine and her throat was dry. The two needed space and she needed something to do that would provide some sort of help. It seemed like the perfect task at the moment.
The second the microwave signaled with it’s beep, Teagan swiped the mug into her hands and offered it to Bex, but handed it to Mina since she’d actually be capable of holding it. Even help her fiancée drink it. “Here. For your pill and your throat.” She turned, shuffling to the other side of the room quietly. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Mina gave Teagan a nod, noting that she’d already taken care of herself before she turned back to Bex. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “You’ve been having a lot of bad luck recently, haven’t you?” Which was apparently a curse, which was just perfect, really. “It’s still alive?” she asked, already concerned, already thinking about what she could do about that. If need be, she could just jump into the water. She wouldn’t be able to breath, and it’d hurt, but she could have approximately thirty minutes to find the creature before her body gave out. Or she could find someone else to hunt it down. Whatever the case, though, it needed to be dealt with, and soon.
When Teagan came to her, Mina took the mug and helped Bex drink some of it to take her pill. “Let that get in your system, and then I need to set the bone, okay?” Broken bones were old hat for Mina. Really, at this point, she would have made a decent field medic. She looked at Teagan. “Do you have anything for pain? This is going to be very, very bad.”
Bex looked from Mina to Teagan as the older girl handed off a mug of tea. She sat up, her body still trembling, and reached out to hold the cup as Mina put it to her lips. It was warm and soothing and felt nice going down, even as pain still thrummed in her arm. She blinked, feeling the panic begin to set in at the words. More pain. She knew they had to set the bone, but she couldn’t help the fear the anticipation brought on. “It– it’s bad– I don’t–” Mina hadn’t seen it yet, though. It was worse than she was probably imagining. She sat up all the way, then, drawing her arm closer to herself. Her eyes went to Teagan, then back to Mina.
“M-maybe it’ll just heal, r-right?” she asked, but even she knew that wasn’t true. She felt cold and clammy and in pain and she didn’t want things to get worse. She just wanted to go home and lay down and go to sleep. Hope tomorrow was better. Under the rags was a mess of bone and muscle and skin and blood and Bex didn’t want Mina to see it. “A-a least put gloves on first. It’s– there’s– a lot of blood.”
Without saying a word, Teagan darted to her medicine cabinet and fetched extra strength pain relievers. They wouldn’t do much until thirty minutes after being taken, but it was all she had. When she returned, she caught the last comment about gloves and grabbed disposable ones from under her kitchen sink. “Here you go.” Handing over the materials to Mina, she navigated her way to sitting next to Bex. “I have some experience resetting, but if you’re comfortable, then you should take over.” She looked at the witch, sitting there pitifully and pale from blood loss. Eyes softened and glistened with tears threatening to spill over, but she blinked them away. Bex needed the two nixies to be strong.
“I can just be here for your support, little peanut.”
“It can’t be anything worse than some of the things I’ve seen before,” Mina said. She sighed, carefully putting the mug down and looking at Bex. She’d already lost a lot of blood. She couldn’t stand to lose much more. They needed to set the bone, stop the bleeding. “I’ve set quite a few bones,” she murmured to Teagan. Hers and other people’s. She took the gloves and took them, and she wasn’t used to wearing them while she was doing things like this, and it was strange, but she’d do it anyway.
“It’s not going to just go away. You know that,” Mina said. The truth was that she’d do what she could, but Mina wasn’t a doctor. If they had to take Bex to the hospital, then they’d go to the hospital. “I might need you to hold her arm still,” she told Teagan. Then, she looked at Bex. “Is that okay? If it’s that bad, and you jerk, it could make things worse.”
The anticipation of the pain was building in Bex’s chest and her breathing was growing shallower, faster. She knew Mina was right, it wasn’t just going to get better, it needed to be seen. She needed to go to a doctor, but they needed to set it first. She’d never make it if they didn’t. She was surprised she hadn’t passed out yet, but she supposed it was the adrenaline of the shock and the icy cold water that was keeping her awake, despite her eyes wanting nothing more than to close. She nodded stiffly, shivering and wincing as it disturbed the position she’d had her arm in on the pillow. “Okay,” she said, breathing out, “okay. Just– do it fast, please.” She looked over at Teagan as the girl sat beside her and she moved her good hand over to clutch the other girl’s.
When she looked back at Mina, face pale, she made sure to keep her gaze. “I’m ready,” she told her, even though she wasn’t. She just wanted this over with. She really just wanted this over with.
Teagan moved to wrap her arm around Bex’s shoulder. Both to comfort and to reach her injured limb to hold it in place while keeping their hands clasped together. The leftover salt from the water burned, but she ignored it. She had to. “I’ve got a good hold. Do what you need to.” Her eyes were locked with Mina’s and her voice was steady despite the panic coiling in her stomach. She wished it had been her who had been attacked, not Bex.
Nodding at her sister, she saw just how scared the witch was and nudged her chin to look at her. Teagan needed to distract so Mina could do her job swiftly. “Hey, what colors are Mina’s scales? Are they a different color than mine?” Opalescent scales with shades of blue, green, and purple covered her shoulders to her jaw. When it seemed like she had Bex’s attention, she signaled with her eyes for Mina to proceed.
With quick fingers, Mina undid the wrap around Bex’s arm and took in the injury. They’d need to go to the hospital, quickly, as soon as they finished setting the bone. If she had more equipment, or if Bex healed fast, then she wouldn’t be as worried. But she was worried, very worried. This would need to be done as quickly as possible so that she could get Bex to the hospital. She looked over at Teagan briefly before turning back to Bex’s broken arm. “It’ll be fast, okay?” Mina said quietly. More to herself, she counted. “One. Two.”
She never made it to three, instead setting the bone back into place and pressing back down on the skin there, trying to stem the bleeding. She knew that was the most important part, now that the bone was set. She wrapped the cloth back around it tight, pressing down. She looked at Bex to see how she was making it. It was over as fast as she could manage it.
Bex could feel her heart rate increasing and her breath began to stutter. She clenched her jaw and tried her best to steady her breathing in an attempt to keep from hyperventilating. Her heart was pounding in her chest, a small whimper on her lips as Teagan secured her arm in place. She looked up at Mina and nodded. “Okay,” she whispered. Turned her head as Teagan nudged her and she knew what she was doing, she was distracting her so Mina could get it done quickly, so that Bex didn’t react and try and pull her arm away. “S-silver,” she said, trying to let the distraction work. Her body trembled, her lip quivering. Heart beating faster and faster. She couldn’t breathe. “Some on her leg are blue, though. They sh-shine so nice in the sun–”
She didn’t get to finish. On two, the bone snapped back into place. Bex’s entire body flooded with pain and she clenched Teagan’s hand so hard, she feared she might break it as well. The scream that left her throat reverberated in the small space of the house boat as Bex cried out in anguish. This, she thought, this was the most painful thing she’d ever felt. She’d rather take another stab to the gut. It would hurt less than this. The pain was white hot and it took over her vision and everything was so bright and loud– and then it went black, and Bex slumped forward onto the table, unconscious.
The scream pierced Teagan’s hearing and she squeezed her eyes shut, wincing at the painful pitch and her tightening grip. For someone so thin, Bex had amazing strength. Her cries made the nix want to burst into tears for not protecting her better. What good was she if she couldn’t do her job? “It’s okay, it’s okay…” She held the girl tighter, shushing gently and holding her as her scream faded and she slumped over.
Mina was still finishing up when she managed to get Bex back to a sitting position, still unconscious. “I can carry her to your car. She needs a doctor for a break that bad.” Teagan had a hunch her sister knew exactly what to do, but her statement was more to let her know she was also aware. That she had Mina’s back. “Let’s get her out of here.”
Mina expected a scream, expected it to be bad, but that didn’t stop her heart from breaking a little more as she completed working on Bex’s arm. When she was done, she took off the gloves and brushed some of Bex’s hair away from her face, moving her hand down her cheek to wipe away some of the tears. Perhaps it was a good thing that Bex had passed out. She was less likely to hurt that way.
Bristling at the thought of quite literally putting Bex’s life into someone else’s hands, Mina forced herself to relax before she gave Teagan a nod. “I would appreciate that.” She knew Bex needed a doctor. She didn’t need things that she already knew repeated to her. She stood up, grabbing her keys. “I keep some spare clothes in my car,” she added as they walked outside. Enough for the two of them, at least, so that they didn’t look too strange carrying a young woman with a broken arm into the ER, all three of them still wet. Though, she had a feeling that they wouldn’t be the weirdest little group that the hospital saw. Not by a long shot. Bex and Mina, at least, would be familiar faces. Mina really, really hated hospitals.
