(i gtg soon)
Quinn kept working. "Charlotte, I need your help." He said, without looking up. "I need you to come over here, hold his hand, and talk to him. Keep him grounded so he doesn't pass out on us." He commanded, still working on stopping the bleeding.
Charlotte looked over and took a deep breath before reaching over to take Aster's hand. "What on earth am I supposed to talk about?" She asked anxiously.
"Anything, everything. Just keep his attention on you, and don't let him close his eyes. Slap him if you have to, just don't let him pass out right now." Quinn replied, applying pressure to the wound.
Aster blinked.
Charlotte took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay. Er, I went to London once, with my parents. Before everything. And I got lost outside. But this huge tower, I thought it could reach the sky, towered over the entire city. It's a giant clocktower, covered in lights, and, being me, I followed it. I wanted to see the city from on top of it. And - I don't remember very well, this was a long time ago. But I remember trying to get to the top of the tower, because I thought the world would look better from up there, and it didn't, and I - Aster. You aren't looking at me," she said sternly.
Aster blinked slowly, dragging his eyes to her and struggling to focus. His breathing was shallow and fast, his eyes flickering with the effort to keep them open.
Quinn kept working. The bleeding was slowing, but hadn't yet stopped.
"Listen. Are you listening? I was 6 years old. And I hid in the bushes by the door to the tower until the guard changed and I opened the door with my magical witch powers, and I went up. But I'm absolutely mentally incapacitated, and I almost fell into a gear and was crushed. I almost lost my arm, but they fixed it, and now I have this wicked scar," she pushed back her sleeve to show him.
Aster blinked, trying to focus on the scar. His breaths came heavy and strained.
Quinn kept working.
Charlotte tapped her foot and took several deep breaths before continuing. "My brother had a parrot when we were small, and we never knew where it came from. And she would say 'sorry' whenever she looked at me, and we'd no idea why," she shook her head while talking. "This isn't helping!" She choked out to Quinn.
Quinn shook his head. "It's just giving him something to focus his brain on other than the fact that he's in a lot of fucking pain!" He replied, pressing harder to get the blood flow to stop.
Aster let out a strangled cry at the pressure, squeezing Charlotte's hand.
Charlotte gently squeezed his hand back. "Alright. Alright. When we were small, we liked to pick flowers and being them inside so our mother could see them. Sometimes we picked flowers the bees wanted, and we got stung. But they were so pretty, and we couldn't leave them, because they made our mother happy. We had whole rainbows of flowers," she took another breath.
Aster's breathing was shaky, but he kept his eyes focused on Charlotte, listening as best he could.
Quinn kept working. The carriage lurched into motion again.
Charlotte flinched at the motion. "My mother liked to go outside a lot, but she was too sick to do anything, and we felt bad for her. So one day, we covered her entire room in flowers and she came in and cried and we were scared we made her sad but then she said they were happy tears," Charlotte looked up at the ceiling briefly and blinked quickly.
Aster took a breath. "Mother… Alice." He said slowly, each word sounding strained and full of pain. "Why sick?"
Charlotte shushed him. "You're not allowed to talk. She was crazy, or… not crazy. But then she wasn't just crazy, and she couldn't breathe very well. Not sure what happened to her, they took her away."
Aster swallowed, and nodded slightly. "Sorry…" He whispered. He knew sort of what that was like.
Quinn sighed softly, and kept working. The carriage was rattling along faster than it ever had before, getting them to safety.
"I said, you're not allowed to talk. This is the Messed Up Families club, and I don't care anymore, anyway. Er, my aunt… she gave me ice cream once. I usually just go outside and read by the well, which is - it was a nice time. My brother used to think faeries lived near wells, but those don't exist in our world," she said with a small laugh.
Aster let out a soft cry of pain as Quinn applied more pressure. Sweat had broken out on his forehead, and his breathing was quick and ragged, eyes flickering with the effort to stay awake.
"But - but my nan thought they did," Charlotte continued quickly. "And I've been wrong about everything so far, so it's probably just that the faeries stay away from me. My nan said I've a tendency to believe the worst, rather than the best, and she was usually right about that sort of thing. And I did believe in the bean sidhe and that sort, so I suppose it makes sense."
Aster took a deep breath, staring at her.
The carriage stopped, and one of the other guards came in, gently pushing Quinn aside. "Your highness, let me handle this." he said, kneeling and starting to check the wound.
Quinn stood to the side, pale, his hands covered in Aster's blood.
Charlotte didn't let go of Aster's hand, but took several shaky breaths, looking at the floorboards.
The guard checked to see if any internal organs had been punctured.
Aster gasped, flinching.
Charlotte winced at the sound and squeezed his hand again. She was trying, and failing, to stop her hands from shaking.
The guard sighed softly. "He's lucky. It didn't hit any organs, just a clean stab." he said. "But we still need to get him to someone who can stop the internal bleeding."
Quinn nodded.
Charlotte looked up and nodded. "And who would that be?" She asked quietly.
"Any good healer should be able to." the guard replied. He stuck his head outside and barked orders at the other two, the carriage rolling into motion again. "I'm second in command, so I'll be in charge while he's incapacitated."
"I meant - alright," Charlotte sighed, looking down again.
The guard sighed. "I'm going to give him some rudimentary stitches to help with the bleeding." He said. "But we need to drain the abdominal cavity first, otherwise…" He trailed off. He gently lifted Aster into a sitting position, pressing on the opposite side of his body to coax out any blood that was still inside.
Aster gave a ragged cry, clamping down on Charlotte's hand with bone cracking strength.
Charlotte yelped before immediately shutting her mouth. She looked up, only to quickly return her gaze to the ground.
Quinn came over, his hands and clothes stained with Aster's blood. Too much of it. How much blood could one man lose before it was too much? "Need me to take over before he breaks your hand?" He asked softly.
Charlotte shook her head firmly, clenching her jaw. "That's fine, thanks," she managed.