Sarah’s gritted teeth were starting to cause her jaw muscles to spasm, staying still while Doc Maureen examined her was proving more difficult than she thought it would be. Sarah was aching. Significantly. There wasn’t a particular ache that she could pinpoint, more it was an all over sort of soul-destroying thrum throughout her body that convinced her that she could sleep for days and still wake up sore.

“What do you think, Maurs? Is she gonna make it?” Jax directed a cocky grin at Doc Maureen.

Maureen stopped her examination to look at Jax. “Jackson Healy if you call me Maurs one more time, the next time you come see me I will inject you with something you can’t recover from.” She turned her attention back to Sarah. “Are you sure you don’t want to kick him out for this?” Maureen’s face was deadpan, but a twinkle in her eye made it known she was joking.

Sarah stifled a pain-inducing laugh, but said nothing. There was no point, if he was here then at least she wouldn’t have to relay any information to him; it had only been the two of them since they were little, and so no matter what, she knew he cared. Their mother had been fairly absent, if she wasn’t turning a trick, she was high on whatever the latest drug was on the market, but she certainly wasn’t as absent as their fathers. They knew they had different fathers, but they didn’t know anything about who they were - given their different skin tones and appearances their sperm donors were clearly quite different. That didn’t bother them though, they were always there for each other - no matter what.

Once the check over had been done, and Maureen assured Jax that Sarah would survive another day, he left the room to go see AJ. Sarah’s LENS had been given to the tech-wizz to see if he could fix it faster than a blitz in a speed-condenser would. AJs talent with technology, and his being Jax’s best friend, was a convenience second-to-none. Sarah had often wondered why AJ never tried to make it big with his skills, but she had never pushed the subject with him as he often shut down any time she tried.

The room they were in was shiny, silver and strikingly sterile. There wasn’t much in New Haven that could be classed as clean, but thankfully Maureen kept her work area well looked after. Though she wasn’t paid for her services, at least not by those that resided in New Haven, she was paid through charities and the like, to keep the vagrants healthy, and no doubt to keep half a watchful eye on us residents. Those same organisations that made sure she had enough medical resources to keep up with the junkies, the battle-worn, and those like me and Jax.

Sarah stood awkwardly and began to jiggle her jeans off, whimpering like a puppy as they pulled on the wound left by the saw. Maureen had wanted to cut the jeans, but as she didn’t have many pairs, and Sarah was pretty sure these could be stitched up just fine, she refused the offer. But, now, as she was pulling them down, the nausea from the pain became almost unbearable, and she was struggling to remain coherent.

Maureen put her arm on Sarah’s shoulder and guided her back to the bed, easing her down with gentle movements. Then, slowly, Maureen began to gently tug the legs of the jeans off Sarah.

Typically a hard ass, Maureen had been around Sarah and her brother long enough that she exuded a sort of motherly calm over them. Sarah definitely relished it, so much so that when she was younger she would find herself gravitating to the exam room inside the hospital, just to be around Maureen. Due to this, Sarah had also picked up the basics of first aid and medical care. Not as much as the Docs medical degree, by any means, but enough that she knew when something needed treatment or would likely be okay on its own. Take her leg for example - that definitely needed treatment.

Once the jeans were off, Maureen inspected the wound thoroughly, using her gloved hands to check inside, and around, the cut. Sarah was laying back on the bed now, trying to shake the nausea and overwhelming head rush she was feeling as the adrenaline was slowly wearing off. After a few quick zaps of the local anaesthetic laser, a saline flush, and a UV light treatment, Maureen began the stitches.

Despite all the treatment she had just endured, Sarah felt her teeth begin clenching again as Maureen began the delicate process of closing the wound with good old fashioned stitches. Even though technology had advanced so much, apparently some of the archaic methods were still the best ones. Standing back, Sarah could see that the thigh-wide gash on her upper leg was now shut, and gaping Glasgow smile was gone.

“So, what happened?” Maureen asked once she was finished and placed herself sitting alongside Sarah. Her shoulder and upper arm were touching Sarah, with comfort and care radiating through the older woman into her.

Sarah shrugged. She didn’t want to share what the plan was - not that Maureen would disapprove of Sarah returning Jax’s stolen items, it was more that -

“Oh shit!” Sarah jumped off the bed, and her bad leg quickly buckled under me. Luckily Maureen caught her before she collapsed to the floor.

“Whoa - slow down Sarah. What’s wrong?”

“My jeans,” Sarah said through gritted teeth, as Maureen helped her back to the bed.

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Maureen nodded at her, and pulsed her hands up and down in a ‘calm down’ fashion, before picking the jeans up and giving them to her. Sarah searched through the pockets, but found nothing.

“Fuck.” she muttered.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s… it’s nothing.”

Maureen looked at Sarah with one eyebrow raised and her mouth upturned, a disapproving look at the clear lie.

Sarah sighed. “Jax stole something and I was trying to return it, but -”

Maureen’s sigh matched Sarah’s own. “What did he take?”

Sarah hesitated to reply, but Maureen came and sat next to her again, wrapping an arm around her. “You’re not doing him any favours by protecting him. I’m here to help you both too.”

Sarah nodded, understanding wholly what she was saying. “He stole some prototype Strip-tech™… or he said he was given it by the dealer Keeley, and he was going to sell it and give Keeley half the profits.

But now, we don’t have them. So there are no profits, and I can’t take them back to where I think they’re from.”

“What happened to them?” Maureen asked.

A shrug. “I guess it’s possible that the three cannibals took them while they were trying to chop my leg off. Or they slipped out in the river…

I just don’t know what we can do to help Jax now. I have been trying for so long to get him to stop being such an idiot, to pull his head in, but…”

“You can’t do everything for everyone Sarah. You need to look after yourself too. You’re going to be out of action for a few weeks now with that wound. Everything I’ve done today will help with the healing process, but because we don’t have access to all the latest healing tech, it won’t be as quick as it could be…”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I’m serious Sarah. Have a rest. Jackson will be okay, he may get into some shit with Keeley over this - but that’s not your problem.”

“He knows I took them.”

“Yes - but that was his risk to take. If it wasn’t you trying to help him, then he could have been fleeced by someone else. You were just trying to do the right thing.”

Quiet, in thought, Sarah nodded, and remained silent for the rest of her time in the room.

As she was leaving the med room, using crutches for support, Sarah was busy mulling over the words Maureen had said. She was definitely trying too hard to fix Jax’s mistakes, and sooner or later something had to give. Maybe this was it, the final straw.

A low hiss escaped her as someone knocked into Sarah, the lip she was chewing on in consternation started bleeding as her teeth chomped down.

Sarah refrained from swearing, she didn’t have the energy left in her to let any expletives out.

“Oh, wow! Sorry Sez!” AJ grabbed her shoulders to steady her. “Are you - should you - like -”

“Stop. Breathe.” She told AJ. He was the type of person whose brain ran a million miles an hour, so getting coherent sentences out could be tricky.

He took her words to heart and took a deep breath, inhaling roughly in her face. Sarah stifled her riled response, remembering she had no energy to force anything out.

“What’s up AJ?” she started using the crutches to walk down the hallway, assuming he would take the hint and follow her.

Sarah assumed wrong, as he stared after her like a lost puppy. Only more so fitting the persona when she had to call him to come after her.

“Right, sorry. Okay. I fixed your LENS -”

“Awesome, where is it?”

“ - at the lab - and I found something weird about it. Can you please come with me to the lab?”

Sarah’s aching leg groaned at the suggestion, but the crinkle of drug packets in the pocket of her borrowed pants sent a reminder that Maureen had given her more pain relief if she needed it. She definitely needed it. Turning to follow him, AJ led the way down the hallway to the ‘lab,’ which was really just his room, but there was enough tech in there that calling it a lab was fitting enough.

Tired and patchy dark blue carpet lined the floor, and blotches of cleaned areas on the walls, where unspecified stains (given this was outside Maureen’s door, it was likely a bountiful load of bodily fluids) had been scrubbed clean, gave the hallway a sad look .

The crusty carpet aside, Sarah still felt like this was home. Even if she longed for that old-school Hollywood dream of her own bedroom, in a stand-alone house in suburbia, this worked. Though, to be fair, no one had that nirvana dream anymore - years of overpopulation, and over development had turned the cities into nothing more than receptacles for human occupation. The whole situation and sheer number of people was kind of a joke, but you did with it what you could.

Once they reached AJs room, he opened the door for Sarah and she slowly walked in, using the crutches more than she would have liked - relying on anyone or anything but herself for support made her uncomfortable. Nonetheless, she thanked AJ for helping her, and turned to face the rest of the room and was taken aback by an angry, scowling, whirlwind of a face greeted her. Jax. With his arms crossed, a disgusted demeanour and a deadly glare in his eye, Sarah knew instantly that any concern about her wellbeing was gone. The brotherly care for Sarah, which he normally wore forefront on his face for her, was erased and replaced instead, with an anger as ripe as her flesh (according to Rot-mouth).