Piece to go with the Skull Armor Eternal Sword idea. :)
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Jareth walked hurriedly toward the hospital room, stopping as Aaron came out of it, head low.
"You found her?" Jareth asked, sounding nearly out of breath, he'd had to force himself to speak.
"Yes." Aaron answered gravely, not meeting his leaders' eyes.
Jareth grasped Aaron's shoulder and put their foreheads together, closing his eyes a moment, letting out a held breath.
He opened them, letting their full intensity reach Aaron until he looked back.
"Thank you, brother." He said sincerely.
Aaron nodded, having to look away again.
He watched solemnly as Jareth carefully walked into the room to see the horror he'd brought back for him. This broken corpse of a girl he once knew.
Jareth entered the room, making his way around several bustling nurses and their two best doctors. No one stopped him. He observed several feet away from the hospital bed as the nurses tore Laura's dirtied, bloodied, and ruined clothes from her body revealing a number of disgusting scars and fresh deep gashes along the lengths of her arms and legs. The deepest one ran between her breasts, branching out in several directions over her belly. Jareth knew the wounds were knife made. Through all of this her chest heaved desperately for breath as if each inhale caused her pain.
The doctors barked several orders and several nurses departed, making way for them to come forward. They began checking her vitals, hooking her up to several monitors. Her heart beat sounded through the machine at such a frantic, yet erratic speed. Her head rolled about her shoulders as if she were trying to get her bearings and couldn't manage it.
The main doctor, Chuck, leaned over her, his hair not moving an inch. He gently pried her eyes open and examined them with a small light. They fell into the back of her head, unable to focus, but not before Jareth saw that they were clouded and empty.
The second doctor looked over her carefully, scouring every inch with her eyes. Jareth didn't know her by name, but he had seen her before. Her frown sharpened as she progressed in her assessment. A nurse scurried out of the room after drawing several vials of blood. He did recognize Emily, another nurse, as she inserted an IV into the top of Laura's unmarked hand.
"A few minutes." She mumbled as she passed Jareth.
She was right, it didn't take long for Laura's breathing to finally slow down. She stilled seeming almost peaceful except for her wounds.
Chuck looked up as if finally noticing Jareth in the room.
"Jareth," he sighed. "You shouldn't have to see this."
A small fire flared inside Jareth and he looked to his friend, speaking clearly. "Yes I do."
The stern but kind doctor opened his mouth to speak again, but didn't get the rare chance to argue with Jareth. Laura's eyes had flashed open with a gasp. The heart monitor screamed as she tore the pads off of her body, then fumbling as she grabbed for the IV.
Everyone within ten yards flew in, descending to restrain her. Only Jareth stood straight, frozen by the look in her eyes: Pure, raw terror.
Chuck called to her as she tried to fight the mass of people over her, but she could only squirm pathetically.
"Laura, we aren't drugging you, we're trying to help you." Chuck told her.
His words reached her slowly, like her brain had to take longer to process him, but she finally stopped struggling. Even so, they kept a tight hold on her arms, shoulders, and legs. Her chest moved up and down roughly in between their hands.
Chuck waited until her eyes found him. "You're in a hospital, okay?"
She nodded, but watched him warily.
"Jareth's here." He continued, gesturing toward Jareth with look.
Her head turned, the effort making her dizzy even though she was moving slower than a snail. She met his gaze, confused, pleading, no trace of relief.
Jared. She mouthed.
Jareth nodded in acknowledgement or consent, he wasn't sure. Both were true.
She looked away from him and to the ceiling. The light in her eyes dimming, she wasn't in this room anymore. Jareth wished she wouldn't leave, more that she didn't go back to where she had been.
"We need to clean out your system and get you some nutrients." The female doctor pressed with clear impatience.
"Yes." Chuck said slowly, throwing his co-worker a look that said 'Be quiet.' "We need you to trust us."
Laura had acknowledged the two of them, but didn't respond, the room didn't breathe.
The question that was obvious, that no one wanted to ask was finally voiced by Chuck. "Are you in pain?"
Laura merely glanced in his direction, but didn't see him. Her eyes shut, the strain transparent. She opened them again and water was shimmering in their depths, though not quite spilling down her clenched face.
"Okay." Chuck almost whispered. "Then we're going to leave that in your hand…is that alright?"
She nodded; just the slightest tilt of her head and Jareth noticed her fisted hand shaking almost violently next to her still leg.
The nurses reacted to the consent immediately as if someone had un-paused the movie.
As the number of people in the room thinned, Jareth went over and sat slowly next to the bed, scooting the chair close, but not moving to touch her. She made what was now an even greater effort to look at him. Her expression didn't say much other than that it didn't bother her that he was there. He remained expressionless.
Then finally, gratefully, her eyes began to close. Jareth prayed that her sleep was dreamless. There was no telling what her nightmares could contain. Those nightmares were his.
With that thought stinging in his mind Jareth spoke:
"What did they do to her?"
Chuck hesitated, his mouth tight wanting to say 'You don't want to know.'
Instead, he clutched his clipboard and turned from the room. "We'll know soon." He answered, then promptly left, giving Jareth his near loneliness.
Jareth's hands, blindfolds over his eyes, clenched and unclenched as he tried to fight the image in front of him. When he opened them her hand was still there, a thin line ending just before her wrist that led to the wider one along the purpled vein on her arm.
He stood suddenly and wanted to run out of the room, but walked as a nurse passed him arms full of bandages. He stormed down the nearest set of stairs.
Derek and Aaron were waiting at the bottom for him. He ignored them nearly shoving his way in between the two like a stampeding bull. His blood was boiling through his body.
The called after him, he didn't turn and didn't respond for several steps.
"Everyone to the training hall now." He ordered, barely hissing through his teeth.
The disappeared in a hurry without protest.
Jareth needed a weapon in his hands. He needed to do something with them to get rid of the feeling that he had carved her body himself.
