The Sanctum Santorum was...empty. Very empty. It was still cluttered and crowded with books and artifacts (dead artifacts, she reminded herself), but there was so little life here. So much had been lost in the Empirikul attack. Ash poked around the rooms with the doors that stood open; she knew better than to open any closed ones. There was just so little here now. Hat-Girl had cried a little when Ash showed up with Strange vomiting blood and bile, and cried a little more when Wong somehow managed to stabilize him with disgusting tinctures and the tiniest smidges of magic that he could manage. Watching him work made her tiny fever headache worse. Once Ash depressed herself trying to find the snakes that used to live on the coffee table, she went back to Strange's side. Hat-Girl had gone home for the evening (Ash could never remember her name), but she stayed put in the sanctorum. Ash crossed her arms on the couch Wong relegated Strange to and took his hand. When he turned up on her shop doorstep he seemed fine, battered, smelly, rather looking like Daredevil after one of his spectacular dumpster landings, but alive. As they spoke though and Ash did her best to fill him in on what little she knew, his insides suddenly seemed to rip themselves to pieces. It was like Strange was being stabbed with a hundred swords but only inside. It took all of her concentration and fine micro control to stitch up his organs and try to hold them together, as corrupted and twisted as magic had made them. It seemed to Ash like Strange was an oozing sore inside, in a way she didn't fully understand. When he woke up after Wong's ministrations he hinted that the spell he cast that banished the Empirikul— and himself— had a spectacular backlash. Ash decided to stay just in case his guts started tearing themselves to pieces again. She was still a little sick, had a million things to do, New York was dangerous for her as it was currently one of Sinisters open playgrounds, but Strange was important. He was important to her. Wong made her some tea, something herbal and flowery, Strange fell back asleep, and Ash kept watchful eye while Wong retreated to start working on more potions and treatments for the Sorcerer Supreme. When Ash fell asleep herself she only woke up when a blanket that smelled strongly of ozone and and mothballs was placed on her shoulders. While barely knowing her, Doctor Strange had saved her life. He had helped with his surgical knowledge and magic to install a new heart implant that kept her breathing. More than that, Strange held her hand before and after the surgeries, and he helped secure her a citizenship to make her life easier in this world. He was the minister at her wedding. She knew that Strange didn't think much of it all, but Ash did. Maybe they weren't close on a personal level but Ash trusted him and that meant she would do just about anything for him. She stayed near him through out the night.
