Alexandra liked hanging out with Francisca. They had common interests, so they had things to talk about, and even when they were sitting in silence as they did homework or watched TV, it was comfortable. This resulted in them hanging out almost every day after school, though Alexandra had asked to go over to Francisca's house the second time, to meet her parents. That was the reason she'd given her friend, at least. To be honest, she didn't really want to hang out at home. Alexandra knew she was probably being paranoid, but she didn't want to risk alienating someone she was developing a friendship with, and the environment at home was difficult to control, considering the circles her mother ran in.
It was fun to hang at Francisca's though because Alexandra usually stayed for dinner and Francisca's father often got home in time to join them. Having dinner with a mother and father, though not hers, made her feel warm and fuzzy inside, reminding her of dinners with her own father, which were a thing of the distant past. They didn't talk much about their own families and Alexandra had a feeling Francisca's had some skeletons, but who didn't? She was just glad to keep the conversation topics on things she didn't have to dodge around.
Sprawled out on Francisca's bedroom floor as they did homework, Francisca spoke up. "Who's…ex-wan-zang?" she asked slowly.
"Xuanzang," Alexandra corrected, glancing to her. "He was this famous Chinese Buddhist monk. Did a lot of research into Buddhism. He had this pilgrimage to India that inspired this cool novel called Journey to the West," she said. "In the book he goes with a monkey, a pig, and a water pùca, and it's all about the monkey's revolt and being thrown out of heaven and then redeeming himself by helping Xuanzang find these lost Buddhist scriptures. It's an adventure but there's a lot of spiritual stuff in it."
Francisca stared at her. "How do you know all that?"
"I read the book."
Francisca blinked and nodded, looking back to her textbook thoughtfully. She seemed, at the same time, not surprised by her answer, but still somewhat nonplussed. "You're kinda weird," she finally spoke.
Alexandra looked up to her, curious about the comment. "Good weird or bad weird?" she asked.
Francisca nodded. "Good weird."
Alexandra smiled and went back to her homework.
About two weeks of hanging out almost every day after school, Francisca mentioned that they had only hung out at her house since that first day, and Alexandra explained that she liked having dinner with Francisca and her parents, since her own father had passed away six years earlier. That bought her a week, but then Francisca got antsy again, wanting to have some time to have fun away from her parents, so Alexandra relented and they went back to her apartment.
Back and forth they went between the two homes, for months. But one night, after dinner and before Francisca was driven home by Katherine, that the shit hit the fan. Infuriatingly, Alexandra couldn't even pawn it off on her mother, because she'd gone to the gym, having assumed her daughter could stay out of trouble at home for two measly hours, not thinking that trouble could come find her.
So, when someone banged on the door and Alexandra stopped halfway down the hall, sensing a friend of her mother's from the FBI, injured and standing outside the front door, she actually hesitated before deciding to let him in. The severity of the injury was the only reason she decided she would.
"Go back to my room and close the door," she snapped at Francisca.
Francisca blinked, startled at the sudden change in demeanor. "What?"
"It's- I can't explain this right now. Just go back to my room and shut the door," she told her. "Now. Please." Francisca stared at her worriedly for a long moment, his mouth twisting in frustration, before she relented, heading back down the hall. Alexandra waited until Francisca closed the door to her bedroom before going and opening the front door.
"Hey buttercup," spoke a pale-faced Martin Lewis. He shifted off the door jam and stumbled inside, managing to make it over to the couch before he collapsed.
"You bleed all over that, my mom is gonna kill you," Alexandra growled, shutting the door.
Martin was a tracker, about thirty years old, that Alexandra had known for a while now. His shaggy brown hair was matted to his forehead from sweat, and he looked like he'd been thrown around a room. Blood had soaked into his clothes, the most noticeable red blotch his left arm.
"Christ, why didn't you go to the hospital?" Alexandra asked.
"Oh! Important," Martin whispered, looking up at her. "I need an IV drip with colloidal silver. Your mom's the closest one I know that has the gear for that on-hand."
Alexandra's eyes widened, her mouth opening as she stared. "You got bitten?" she snapped.
"Yeah, so, if we could hurry this up…"
"Fine," Alexandra muttered. "Look, we'll put you in the guest room and I'll get the bleeding under control, and Francisca can take the subway home. I'm sure my mom will be home soon to help."
"Wait, your mom's not here?" he asked.
"Finally grasped that, did you?" Alexandra asked, picking up his wrist and skillfully finding his pulse.
"I need-"
"Shut up," she interrupted, staring at the second hand ticking across the wall clock. A few seconds later, Alexandra looked back to him. "I hope the wolf that did this to you is dead."
"Yeah, it's dead," he muttered.
"Don't bleed on me," she said, turning to Martin and pulling his uninjured arm over his shoulder, helping him to his feet.
"I said I was bitten. I need the IV drip and-"
"Martin, you're being idiotic," she snapped. "I'll patch you up and you'll be fine."
"Kid," he growled, pulling back and almost falling back into the couch, "I need to go. I wasn't thinking coming here-"
"Because you're a little low on blood. And now you'll turn anyway when you pass out from blood loss before you get anywhere else!" Alexandra exclaimed.
"Alexandra, I am not letting this happen!"
Alexandra stared at him, stunned at the abrasive tone, and then shook her head. "Fine. I'll give you the drip."
"Alex-"
"Move!" she insisted, pulling his arm back around her shoulders. Martin gnashed his teeth and hissed in a breath as he blinked a few times, heading out into the hall.
Right into the line of sight of Francisca, who was standing at the threshold of Alexandra's room.
There was a long moment of silence where everyone froze. Alexandra's face went slack and Martin, whose breathing had been uneven before, stopped completely.
"Holy shit," Francisca whispered.
Alexandra's face twitched in frustration and anger before she dismissed Francisca, putting the bleeding Tracker leaning on her as a priority. "Come on," she snapped at Martin, continuing down the hall. They went into the guest room, laying Martin down on the bed and lifting his legs up onto it.
"Your mom's gonna kill me," he breathed.
"One problem at a time. Let me make sure she'll have someone to kill." Alexandra turned and went into the hallway, ignoring Francisca, who was staring at her.
"He's bleeding," Francisca managed.
"Thank you, captain obvious," Alexandra said. Going over to the bathroom, she took a few squirts of liquid soap and thoroughly washed her hands. She then went to the hallway closet and unwrapped three plastic-covered towels from as well as the IV kit and headed back to the guest room.
Going briefly to the kitchen, Alexandra put a pot of water on the stove to boil with salt proportionate for sterilization and got the med kit and a trash bag from under the kitchen sink. After quickly setting up the IV drip, injecting colloidal silver into the glucose solution and hanging it from the bedpost on the headboard, she took Martin's pulse again, looking at her watch as she counted off heartbeats. His arm was limper now, his body busy fighting off the lure of sleep, and she saw him blink a few times repeatedly, determined not to fall unconscious. Alexandra then snapped out her folding knife and sliced his t-shirt down the middle and off at the arms, rolling him to pull it out from under him.
Alexandra took a pair of medical gloves from the kit, putting them on, and opened one of the towels, folding it and putting it across Martin's chest and arm. She pressed down to start to absorb the blood, causing him to grimace. "Guess I kinda ruined your playdate, huh?" he asked after a moment. Alexandra glared at him before pressing down harder on his wounds. Martin's eyes widened. "Ow," he stated pointedly as he shot her a glare.
A few minutes later, Alexandra brought in the pot of water, stopping at first by Francisca standing at the threshold of the bedroom, sidling past her and putting the pot on the floor. She put the first blood-soaked towel into the trash bag, taking another out and dampening it in the water, mopping up and cleaning away the rest of the blood, as she mentally triaged each of the gashes in front of her.
"Don't you close your eyes," she told him as she saw him drifting. "Hey." She clapped her hands a few times in front of his face, prompting him to blink a few times. "Stay with me." She grimaced, looking to her friend. "Can you… Francisca, can you grab a water bottle from the fridge?"
"What…? Ah…yeah. Yeah, I can do that." She quickly left.
Once Alexandra wiped up the blood, though some of the gashes were still bleeding, it had started clotting enough to start stitches. She stripped off the bloody gloves, threaded a needle, and put on a clean pair of gloves before beginning with the gash that was leaking the most. Her stitches were efficient and smooth, and once she'd closed the gashes on his chest, ignoring Martin's tenseness and grimacing, she took out the third towel and wiped the blood away from the gashes on his arm, which had started leaking again. She then threaded the needle once more and finished the stitches, putting on some antibiotic ointment and then covering the wounds with a thin, loose layer of gauze.
"You're an awesome kid, you know that?" he finally spoke quietly.
"Yeah, yeah. Flattery won't get you my forgiveness."
"It's not flattery if it's true."
"Yeah, it is. And first aid stuff is easy to learn and practice. You know as well as I do that my mom wants me to be safe. It's more likely I'll get hurt accidentally than get attacked, and years of self-defense classes are second to me saving my life." She sighed. "If she had a choice, she'd prefer this kind of trouble anyway, and that I stay out of the other kind."
"And? Do you?"
Shrugging, Alexandra replied, "It's been longer since I've needed my self-defense skills than it's been for my first aid skills."
Alexandra ignored Francisca's heavy presence behind her, standing next to the door, watching the whole procedure. Taking off the second pair of gloves and tossing them in the garbage bag, Alexandra took Martin's pulse once more and nodded slowly. "Okay," she said. "You should be good."
"Fantastic," he said tiredly. "You rock." Alexandra took the water bottle from Francisca with a tight smile and shook out some pain pills from a bottle. She held them in front of Martin's mouth until he opened it, and she dropped them in, then helping him hold his head up to swallow them with some water. Martin then leaned back onto the pillow with a long sigh. "Your mom's gonna kill me twice. Once for the drip and once for bleeding on the guest bed."
"She might pour a little alcohol on your wounds." Martin grimaced but remained silent, as Alexandra grabbed the trash bin from the corner of the room, putting it next to his bed. "Don't worry about the blood. You aren't the first one to shed some on that thing, and it's got a solid plastic cover for just such occasions. Here's the garbage can, for when you start throwing up. And Martin…if the silver doesn't work…" Alexandra's voice trailed off, unable to meet his gaze.
A muscle in Martin's jaw twitched slightly. "I'm sorry I laid all this on you, kid," he said. "I thought your mom would be here-"
Alexandra shook her head. "Shut up," she told him. "I just, I wanted to say…I'm assuming you've got everything in order?"
Martin nodded. "Part of the job description."
"All right." Alexandra swallowed. "Good luck." Martin blinked at her once before his eyes closed and he drifted off into sleep.
Alexandra put on a fresh set of gloves to clean up the mess she'd made before she spared a glance to Francisca. "Okay," she muttered. Motioning to her friend, who was still in a bit of shock, Alexandra led the way back to her bedroom.
\*\*\*
Francisca walked over and sat in the desk chair as Alexandra shut the door, leaning against it and letting out a long sigh as she slid down to the floor. She stared ahead, blank-faced and tired. The two sat for almost half a minute in an uncomfortable silence before Alexandra spoke up. "I'm sorry," she muttered, gnashing her teeth.
"Who is he?" Francisca asked.
"He's…a Tracker," Alexandra said, her eyes steadily staring at the wall. "Like my mom. He's been a friend for a long time and he knew he could come here for help."
Francisca stared at her for a long moment. "Why not a hospital? Why did he say…he got bitten?" she whispered.
Alexandra gritted her teeth harder. She'd been eavesdropping. Great. "Because he did."
"But why did he say it like that?"
"Because he was bleeding all over the couch-"
"And the silver stuff?" Francisca asked. "What did you mean, if it doesn't work?" Alexandra worked her jaw, trying to find a workable lie for that one. "And how did you know how to fix him like that?" he exclaimed. "You're like a freaking ER doctor!"
"My mom taught me in case of emergencies-"
"Stop fudging it," Francisca barked, prompting Alexandra to dart her gaze to her, her eyes widening. "Just tell me the truth."
"No."
Francisca blinked, taken aback. She gaped at her for a moment before he shook his head. "No?"
"No," Alexandra repeated, staring at him. "Because I've told you enough. Because you aren't going to want to come hang out here anymore anyway. So, if I keep going, it's only going to make things worse."
Just then, the front door open and shut with a bang. "Alex?" Katherine shouted.
Alexandra pulled back and shut her eyes with a groan. Her mother's psychic abilities had likely alerted her to what had happened as soon as she'd parked her car, and Alexandra could feel that she was pissed. "She's got brilliant timing," she muttered, shoving herself to her feet.
\*\*\*
Katherine, Francisca, and Alexandra all stood in the guest room, where Martin lay half conscious, as Alexandra explained what had happened and her mother looked over her first aid work. After getting caught up, Katherine fell silent for a long moment before she finally spoke. "Go back to your room with Francisca," she said, motioning to her daughter.
"Mom-"
"Now!" she barked, keeping her eyes on Martin. Katherine knew her daughter was aware that her anger was for their unexpected visitor, so she just let out a long breath and motioned to Francisca to follow her. "You are unbelievable," Katherine breathed, shaking her head, her arms tightly folded.
"Colebrook-"
"I am not finished," she snapped. Katherine took a few steps forward. "Oh, I am so far from finished. Okay, so somewhere in the back of your mind you realized I was close and that I'd have colloidal silver on hand and the medical supplies, but you didn't think about what would happen if I wasn't here? Why didn't you call first? If Alex had called me, I would've called 911 and had them take you to a recovery center-"
"I'd rather die," Martin growled.
"You still might get your wish!" Katherine said, starting to slowly pace. "Don't test me."
"I knew you had the silver on hand, so-"
"That's not the point, Martin," she snapped, turning back to him. She pointed in Alexandra's approximate direction. "How does Alex feel if you die? Not to mention the position Francisca has been put in!"
"I know," he said, unable to meet her gaze. "I… When I realized, I tried to leave…"
Katherine let out a breath, shaking her head. "You never should have come at all."
"I know. Colebrook, I'm sorry, I really am."
Katherine paused. "Get some rest," she said.
\*\*\*
Katherine stopped at the threshold of her daughter's room, and Alexandra looked up and met her mother's gaze. "I'm going to call Francisca's mother to come pick her up," Katherine spoke. "I'll take bedside duty. You've helped enough."
"Got it," Alexandra said.
"I know what this means," Francisca said. "Alex told me."
Katherine went over to Alexandra's desk, pulling out her chair and sitting in it, facing the two teenagers. "Well, Francisca, you need to make this decision," she said. "You're completely within your rights to tell your parents everything that happened. In fact, you probably should. But…I am going to ask you to lie about one thing. I'm going to ask you to tell them it was me that gave Martin the medical care, okay?"
"I don't have to tell them anything," Francisca said, shaking his head. "Seriously."
Alexandra looked down to her hands, knowing exactly what kind of attitude her friend was taking with this, and she didn't even need her psychic abilities for it. This was really cool to her. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be cool to her parents, and Alexandra knew they'd be told what happened. She's known the whole time. Maybe they'd get over it in time, maybe they'd only let Alexandra come over to Francisca's house, but things had changed.
"Considering the situation, I am not allowing that as an option," Katherine told her. "You're a child. And I cannot in good conscience let you keep something like this from your parents."
"I'm not telling them something that would send Alex to jail," Francisca exclaimed. "I get what happened, the silver thing. And I'm not telling them it was you, either."
"You are, at the very least, telling them that Martin stumbled in here after being injured," she said firmly. "That's big, and it's something you need to talk to your parents about. There was a lot of blood. You must be at least a little shaken up." Francisca averted his eyes. "All right? You can leave out the part about the colloidal silver, but talk to them about a Tracker coming here injured and needing help."
Francisca hesitated before nodding. "Okay," she relented.
Katherine stood back up and shook her head tiredly. "Hey, Alex?" she asked softly. Her daughter met her gaze. "I saw the stitches. Nice work." Alexandra smiled as her mother turned and left the room.