Claymore and Dagger (closed)

[heartofcourage]

Fiona's grandfather had told her stories about drakes from Greece. When he was a young man, he had even owned one. A drake he had named Stavros who had taken him all over Europe on his various travels. The sight of one dead scared Fiona greatly. They were special, expensive, rare, and to have them slaughtered in this way was a shame.

Gently, she reached out to touch one that had died, her hand tracing against its scales gently. She glanced towards the woods as a drake came forward, injured and nudging at the man that had obviously been his master. Her heart broke for the beast, scared and injured.

She was quiet as Sam stroked the drake gently, murmuring to him to calm him. He had a soft side to him that surprised Fiona greatly. He wasn't the man that would stalk her until capture right then. He was simply a man concerned for the great beast.

His dark gaze turned towards her in an instant and when he sighed, she was incredibly confused. She hadn't expected him to scoop her into his arms. She immediately started to squirm, protesting what he was doing.

"I'm not going to town." She murmured, looking up at him with concern. "Just take me to my camp. I'll be fine. My things are there anyway."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Shut up an' sit still," he growled quietly without looking at her. "I'll arrest you if I 'ave to, an' then ye'll be seein' a doctor behind bars. So jus' go with it an' y'might still be free t'night." Sam felt a mix of anger and confusion at his own unwillingness to arrest her at that moment. Maybe it was because he felt responsible for her injury. Maybe it was because he had more pressing issues with the camp full of dead Greeks. Maybe it was the heartbroken look she'd given him as he appeared from the forest to start the chase. He tried to insist to himself that it was because of the camp, nothing more, and Fiona wasn't so dangerous that he couldn't leave the chase while he sorted things out.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona was quiet as Sam growled at her to simply go with the situation. She was unsure as to why he seemed to be so upset with her, except for the whole chase that she had taken him on. He was a man that had the world on his shoulders and it seemed that this situation was simply more for him to worry about.

"Just this once." Fiona said as she allowed her aching head to rest against his broad shoulder. "But only because I'm tired."

 

[KieranSoares]

It felt so strange to have a wanted woman in his arms, and to have her give in and relax against him. Annie's home was on the way, so Sam stopped there first. He set Fiona down on a bench beside the main corral before taking the drake toward the house. He fully expected Fiona to run, but he hoped she wouldn't. He just wanted to get her taken care of so it would be off his conscience.

Sam knocked on the door, calling in. "Ann? I need your help out here."

 

[heartofcourage]

Annie opened the door with a look of concern on her face. Sam never came by during the day and when he did it usually meant something had happened. Bridget was cradled against her shoulder, slumbering peacefully as her mother had been cooking lunch.

"What's wrong?" Annie asked, looking to her younger brother first and then to the drake that had arrows protruding from his side and then to the pale woman sitting dazed on the bench next to the corral. "Sam, what happened?"

David and the boys had gone to market only a few moments before, getting something for dinner and a few items that were needed for the stables. She had been enjoying a quiet morning at home with her daughter when Sam had knocked.

"Hold her." Annie said as she passed Bridget to her brother and moved to quickly look over the drake. "Oh, poor little one. Someone wanted to do you some harm."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Sorry t'bother you," Sam murmured as he cradled his niece against his chest. "I'm no' sure what 'appened myself, but I was after this lass when we ran into a camp full o' dead Greek men. Looked like some sort of organization, but I don' know yet. This was th'only drake still alive. Someone killed all th'rest."

The great dark golden drake knew a sympathetic human when he saw one, so he was easily made to stand still and let Annie look him over. Sam meanwhile looked back to Fiona. "I can' stay, though, Ann. I need t'take Blackstone t'Aunt Val 'r Alex."

 

[heartofcourage]

"She looks like she ran face first into that camp." Annie commented as she glanced towards Fiona. "And this beastie isn't much better."

She let out a sigh as she looked to her brother, listening to him talk about taking Fiona to Valentina or Alex. "Sam, you have chased her all over Inverness for the past few weeks. Don't get attached to her."

She considered for a moment the drake and knew that she would need David's help to remove the crossbow bolts from his side. She could get him into the barn and into a stall, some pain killing herbs to dull his senses, but from there she would need help.

"Go put Bridget in her crib by the fire. She should sleep for a while longer. I'll get him into the barn and safe." Annie said as she glanced towards Sam. "Then you can take her to the healers."

 

[KieranSoares]

Sam rolled his eyes when Annie told him not to get attached. "I'm no' attached. It's my fault she's hurt, so I'm makin' up for it. I'm no' a monster, Ann." He took Bridget inside after that. When he returned, he borrowed one of Annie's great draft horses and helped Fiona up into the saddle. He climbed up behind her and they continued on toward town.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona's head was filled with a sickening thudding by the time that Sam lifted her into the draft horses's saddle. Her senses were swimming and she knew that she was in some real trouble by the way that she felt so tired. She had only felt that way once before and that had been when she was just a little girl.

Her father had left her with her grandfather while he went on a drinking binge. At the end of it, Ephriam refused to let his son take her back. She remembered the two men getting into a great fight, her father striking her grandfather and then storming out with his great hand wrapped around her arm tightly. She had cried for her grandpa, begging her father to let her stay.

She remembered his golden gaze turning towards her, his red fur bristling at the thought that his daughter wanted to stay with the man that he hated. The backhanded blow that he delivered to that tiny girl had her sprawling across the dirt path, her hands and knees staining with mud from the recent rains. Her head swam just as it was now except he had never cared enough to get her help. He simply jerked her to her feet and continued on his way home, the little girl never again bringing up the fact that she wanted to stay with her grandfather.

Fiona's cub blue eyes opened suddenly with that though, a hiss of pain whistling through her clenched teeth.

 

[KieranSoares]

Sam's arm wrapped about Fiona's waist at that, concerned that she might be unsteady. "Hold on," he murmured. "We're almos' there." They approached Valentina's home, the lovely stone house covered in creeping vines and flowers, all medicinal and carefully kept by Theo.

Valentina and Alex were out in the garden together, her son having come by as he did nearly every other day. "Al!" Sam called. Alex looked up, and when he saw Fiona, he immediately rounded the fence and came up to them, stopping the great horse.

"Can you walk, miss?" Alex asked softly as he helped her down from the saddle with Sam's support to keep her from dropping too fast.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I'm fine." Fiona murmured as Sam helped her from the saddle and Alex steadied her. "I don't know why he's making a fuss."

"Because you have a head injury, dear." Valentina said as she joined the group. "And those can steal away a person when you're least expecting it to."

 

[KieranSoares]

"I have t'get Ciaran's men out into th'forest an' take care o' some things. I'll be back in a couple hours," Sam told them. "Don' let Blackstone leave without me." He then looked at Fiona. "If she wanders out alone, one o' my men'll arrest 'er. An' she doesn' need tha' right now."

 

[heartofcourage]

"Well, we wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" Fiona mumbled sarcastically as Alex lifted her off her feet and into his arms to bring her into the house.

Everything tilted in the worst way as he did that, her fingers clinging to his tunic as they entered the warm and clean house.

 

[KieranSoares]

Alex brought Fiona to one of the little guest rooms- the house had been added onto so Valentina could keep critical patients close and well-cared for- and he carefully set Fiona on the edge of the bed. He let his mother take over as she was the senior healer, while he fetched some things to help get Fiona cleaned up. Among those items was a soft-tooth comb, the usual medical supplies, and the jars of honey and mint for anything herbal that Fiona would have to choke down. Tea had always been the Ambrose way of soothing patients and giving them herbs in a less gag-inducing way.

 

[heartofcourage]

Valentina asked her some questions as to how she had been injured. Soon, she was giving Fiona something to numb the pain in her head and numbing herbs so that she could stitch the open wounds on her forehead. She directed Alex to gently pull her shoulder free from her dress and it was apparent that she had dislocated the joint.

"We'll work on that first. It'll be instant relief." Valentina murmured as she told Alex to help her manipulate the joint back into place.

"I know. It's happened before." Fiona murmured as she closed her eyes and bit her cheek to keep herself from crying out too loudly.

"You've dislocated this shoulder before?" Valentina asked as she quickly jerked on the poor girl's arm, the sound of a loud pop and a sigh of relief filling the room.

"When I was a little girl." Fiona wouldn't say anything else to that as the two healers go to work on her head wounds.

"Mama, can I watch?" Came a voice from the door and Valentina glanced towards her son as he stood there with an excited look in his eyes.

"Did you finish your lessons?" She asked him as she threaded a needle to work.

"No, but Vi is still working on hers." Valentina let out a long sigh as she looked down at her little boy.

He was getting older but he had no interest in his lessons. He loved plants and animals, always wanting to watch her work. Unlike Alex, Ruari didn't want to sit and be read to, no matter how many times she tried to entice him.

"It's alright. He can stay." Fiona murmured softly.

 

[KieranSoares]

Ruari had been a surprise for Theo and Valentina not long after Alex had passed his master's test with flying colors. He'd also been a surprise at birth too, coming a full three weeks early during a horrific blizzard so Theo and Valentina were snowed in and had to deliver the boy alone as even Alex couldn't get to them. Ruari had been nothing but a practice in contradictions all his life. He loved the work of healers but he was incredibly impatient with everything else in life. He was immensely energetic, but he could sit still for hours listening to his parents or brother tell him about herbs. He absolutely detested his normal studies, but he could go through healing journals and herbology books like hot cakes.

Alex directed his younger brother to sit in a chair out of the way, warning the boy that they couldn't spare the time to entertain him, but Ruari was fine with that, even if he had plenty of questions.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona was quiet as Valentina set about stitching up her wounds while Alex carefully combed out the debris from her hair. "What happened?"

"Sam was chasing me and I fell down a steep hill." Fiona said as she felt her eyes growing heavy.

"Are you a bad person?" Ruari asked from his seat and Valentina soon leveled a glare in his direction. "Sam only chases bad people, Mama."

"I suppose you could say I am." Fiona murmured, a smile curling her lips.

 

[KieranSoares]

"Well, she's our patient right now, Ru, regardless of what she is outside these walls," Alex told his brother. "But there are those of us who think she's not as bad as Sam believes," he added quietly, which told Fiona he knew her story. That was likely because he or Valentina had been charged with taking care of the body of the woman she killed, or perhaps taking a look at Sam after his not-so-graceful fall while chasing her over a river or getting caught in her snare trap.

 

[heartofcourage]

"I can't comment on whether I really am good or not. I've been a thief most of my life." Fiona murmured as Alex scolded his brother and then let her know that he knew her story. "I try to be good, though. It's hard when your belly is empty and you haven't eaten in days."

 

[KieranSoares]

Once the stitching was done, Alex made a sling for Fiona's arm as her shoulder would need to rest for some time before going back to its usual use. But he wouldn't let her go to sleep. "I know you must just want to sleep, but with a concussion, we can't let you. Let us know if you feel like you're going to black out or be sick. Don't hide it. Understood?" He asked her quietly.

 

[heartofcourage]

Fiona nodded as she leaned back against the pillows on the bed, exhaustion washing over her as she relaxed. It had been a long time since she felt safe and she certainly felt that in the home of the Irons family.

"And you and I are going to finish your lessons." Valentina said as she held her hand out to Ruari.

"Awww....Mama...." Ruari begged, looking up at her with his father's dark gaze.

"No excuses, bambino. I can't let your Da or your Papa teach you anymore because you always get out of it." Valentina said with a small grin on her lips. "If you do well, we can go and check on the garden afterwards."

 

[KieranSoares]

Alex remained with Fiona while his mother and brother left to continue lessons. Alex was drinking his own tea, leafing through one of his grandfather's old journals from Italy. He had to keep an eye on Fiona just in case she couldn't warn him if she was blacking out. As he went, he asked Fiona quietly, "So what happened?"

 

[heartofcourage]

"I killed someone in self defense." Fiona murmured as Alex softly asked her what happened. "And Sam is going to make sure that I answer for what I did. I've been living in the woods for a few weeks now while he searches for me. It's lonely out there."

She glanced towards Alex and let out a long sigh. "When I fell down the hill, we came across a camp where all the people and drakes were slaughtered. I've never seen senseless carnage like that before. Those poor creatures. There was one that survived and Sam took him to his sister."

 

[KieranSoares]

"Well, it looks like Sam wants to continue the chase, if he brought you here. Odd. He normally doesn't give his quarry a chance when he catches them," Alex commented thoughtfully.

 

[heartofcourage]

"Well, lucky me." Fiona murmured as Alex commented on the fact that Sam wanted the chase to continue. "He's a bull headed brute."

"Alex?" Viola murmured as she stepped into the room with a steaming bowl of food. "I made you lunch."

Viola was an absolute beauty at 12 years old. She had her mother's dark looks and slender body and she was incredibly soft spoken like her father. She was content being quiet, unlike her little brother who could be a terror sometimes. She was also one of the best cooks in Inverness, a talent that she tried out often on her family.

"And what's for lunch?" Fiona asked her with a slight smile on her face as Viola looked at her shyly.

"Spaghetti. It's my Papa's recipe. It has a tomato sauce and herbed goat cheese. Would you like some?" Viola offered, knowing there was more than enough for everyone in the house.

"Maybe a little later when my belly has settled." Fiona said softly.