slayers_desire | healing abilities don't lessen the pain

Entry tags:

clark,
untaken road

healing abilities don't lessen the pain

A flickering of light in the middle of April's apartment had foretold the PINpoint portal's appearance. It flashed, leaving the young woman kneeling on the ground, struggling to keep her weakening arms and knees strong against the anguish of pain from The Beast's attack. Already her healing abilities were at work to reduce the ill effects on her body. The sprained ankle, the bruises around her neck, the scrapes on her arms, the black eye, and the dark bruising of being kicked in the stomach.

It would take time to heal everything. And right now... April was barely able to crawl across the floor to her bathroom, where she puked up her last meal, and some blood from internal injuries.

Sitting against the cool bathroom wall, April steadied her breathing. Gritted her teeth against another wave of pain, as slowly she removed the torn and bloody clothing from her body. First her shirt, then her pants. And threw them at the hamper... missing it completely.

Glancing up to the bathroom cabinet, where the first aid kit was kept, April attempted to stand. But failed that too. Returning to her seated position very quickly when her legs just didn't have the strength anymore.

Fighting against the parts of her mind that told her to sleep, April crawled to where her pants had fallen and pulled out the PINpoint in them. She wasn't quite sure what she should message Clark, as part of her worried about sending him full details and making him feel concerned. But she should at the very least let him know that she was home now. Safe again.

Clark. I have returned back to Kansas. Give me a call when you can.

With that message sent, April took several deep breaths and attempted standing again. This time she had just enough strength to grab at the First Aid Kit, and have it fall down beside her on the bathroom floor. Opening the kit, she pulled out the wrapped roll of bandages, and started nursing her injuries back to health. Starting with her sprained foot.

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Clark is out for his daily flight, one of his new habits he's trying to start on Victor's suggestion, and he's somewhere over Indonesia when the text comes in. He drifts in mid-air, well out of the way of intercontinental flights, as he looks at the message and smiles. There's nothing to indicate that anything's wrong, so he doesn't know enough to worry.

He calls her back, after dropping slightly lower so his cell signal doesn't get confused by multiple towers.

She has her foot wrapped by the time the phone rings. Picking it up, seeing the number, she manages a small smile before answering the call.

"Hey handsome. Long time no talk." Her voice is soft and a little raspy.

"Hi," he says, and something seems wrong, he can't put his finger on what. Her voice sounds a little off, maybe she's picked up something? He listens hard for background noise. "How are you doing?"

As April's next attempt with the bandages will be around her stomach, there is some hushed whimpers in the initial attempts. Before she just stops, as not to make things worse for herself.

"Tired would be an accurate term. I haven't had any restful nights." She pauses. Her time in the living room had been short enough she hadn't seen if Clark had gotten her previous note. "Hopefully the visions will give me a night off."

He's a little alarmed at the sounds she's making, and he starts moving in the air, streaking over the Pacific Ocean towards the United States, because those are not normal April sounds. "You sound more than tired."

Placing her head on her free hand, April knew that she just couldn't keep lying to him. It was too hard. It didn't feel right.

"I didn't want to worry you." Especially as April didn't know where Clark's mind or heart were right now. They hadn't seen much of each other since their flying adventure. She focuses on that day, as another moment of pain hits her.

"I was attacked. In Rome."

That gets his heart leaping in fear for her. "I'll be there in a few seconds, okay?"

And he pours on the speed, knowing that the cell towers won't be able to keep up with him, but it's okay because the world is spinning beneath his feet and he's going to be at her apartment in mere seconds, the sonic boom from his passage echoing across thousands of miles of airspace.

"Just remember to use your spare key." Visions of Clark breaking down the door enter her head. And hopefully as phone service becomes non-existant he will have heard her.

She has no idea how bad she looks. But is guessing it won't be good. Luckily the bathrobe is hanging in the bathroom, and can be pulled down to cover her body.

He locates Manhattan, Kansas from thirty thousand feet and zips downward, not caring if he's picked up on any form of radar because he's moving far too fast to be intercepted, superspeeding into her apartment building and stopping only once he's standing at her door. He already has his key in the lock before he stops moving, and then he's inside her apartment, looking and listening for her, and follows the streaks of blood to the bathroom. "Oh God."

The bathrobe is only going to cover the damage to her ribs, with the black eye and the already bandaged foot visible. And the marks at her throat and on her arms. "I must look horrible."

"Sorry..." She apologizes for getting hurt.

He drops to his knees next to her, not sure where to start. "What happened? What can I do?" As he speaks, he x-rays her for broken bones, internal injuries, anything not immediately obvious. He hands hover lightly over her chest and stomach, seeing the injuries there, not wanting to make them worse but wanting to fix her.

Luckily the rib bones have just been bruised, and not broken. But there was some internal bleeding from the bruising around her stomach.

"Big bad Demon met me in a dark alley." April shifts to gesture to the First Aid Kit beside her. "I wasn't able to wrap my stomach properly."

He pulls the first aid kit closer to himself, and picks up the roll of bandages. "Can you sit up a little more?" He puts a hand on her back, trying not to hurt her any more than she already is, looking her over in concern and afraid that he's missing some incredibly obvious and serious injury or something.

Shifting to sit up as instructed, April moves the bathrobe so he can access that area of her body more. "It was so stupid of me... I don't know what I was thinking."

He starts wrapping her, careful to not squeeze too tight but not leave the bandages loose enough that they don't do any good. "Tell me about it?"

"Mmmmm I hadn't been sleeping well. After sharing that new vision of Jasmine with another woman. And my mind was... lifting things..."

"So I went to talk to Angel. He knew my mother before she was vamped. And I had hoped he could give me some insight on the abilities I inherited."

A small wince as Clark reached a sensative area. "I was almost there was a vision assaulted me. Jasmine and that other woman talking to a big, strong Demon. Seducing him. Telling him that I was dangerous to them."

"When I came out of the vision... the Demon was right in front of me. Grabbed my neck and..." April paused. Trying to find the right words.

He eases up when she winces, being extra careful around those places that are dark with bruising, but there's just so much of it...

He pauses, and touches her neck, so lightly, needing to feel the bruises left behind by the demon. "And he hurt you."

"He just started punching me. And tried to..." April can't form the words. She closes her eyes. "Said he needed to break my body and spirit."

"Angel showed up. Just in time. Fought him."

He puts the pieces of the puzzle together, absolutely horrified. All this happened to her and he had no idea. "God, I'm sorry. I should've been there." He knows there's no way he could've known, but he feels like he should've done something, because his girl was assaulted and he wasn't there to help her.

"There was no way to know this was going to happen. Even I didn't know... until seconds before..." April reached out to touch his hair.

"I didn't want to worry you. But I still need you."

Oh God, there's the guilt again, because he knows something she doesn't. "Jasmine came to see me. Before. I... I should've warned you, when I wasn't..." He trails off, but the image of a red kryptonite ring slipping onto his finger keeps playing over and over in his mind.

April is so exhausted that her gifts are not active at the moment. She doesn't sense the guilt. But can hear it in his voice when he talks about Jasmine visiting her. And when he drops his sentance, April takes his hand, hoping he can tell her the rest.

"Why did Jasmine come to see you?"

"She wanted to make me... betray you. She... asked me when I was Kal." And it could've gone so very, very badly. "She tried to put me under mind control, but this..." He draws the charm out of his shirt, rubbing it gently between two fingers. Her gift to him. "It protected me. And I didn't. But she told me you were going to face a 'friend' of hers."

"Betray me? When you were Kal?" April feels a rush of nausea hit her. The thought of Jasmine being with Clark makes her sick to her stomach.

Caressing the necklace, April is relieved it protected him.

"... What made you Kal?"

He looks away slightly, not wanting to admit to his weakness, especially since on some levels he still wants to put the ring back on. It's a need he's going to battle for quite some time, even though the flying helps. "Found a ring. I wanted to... not care for a while. It hurt too much." He looks back at her. "I'm not anymore. It... didn't go well, and it wasn't worth letting him out."

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