Of The Sea : John Murphy

Healer Who

I tossed Murphy into the sand with a hard shove while Adrian hobbled beside me with a hand on his head.

"I'll give you some credit, you did give my second quite the beating." I told him while setting Adrian down gently.

He stayed quiet while he pushed himself up into a sitting position.

"Cat got your tongue?" I mumbled while dampening a rag and dabbing it gently onto Adrian's cheek wound.

Adrian winced and hissed when I pressed too hard and I immediately apologised, placing another hand on his other cheek and tilting his head softly.

"Geez, what are you, his mother? Aren't you a bit young for that?" A voice snickered from behind.

I stopped what I was doing but didn't look back at him "He is my second. No one is too young to be a mother." My tone flat.

"No, I mean his mom, not a mom in general." Murphy clarified.

Oh, right.

I swallowed and nodded, continuing to clean his face and ignoring Murphy. "When we return, I will start training you properly." I told Adrian.

He nodded and took the rag from me with a smile. "No need to pamper me, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

I pursed my lips and nodded. I missed worrying over someone, caring for someone with gentle touches and voices. I missed my baby boy.

I moved away from the area for a moment to retrieve some wood and such to start a fire for the night.

After a few attempts, I managed to spark a flame. Thank the seas for that since it was getting dark.

I pulled out my cloak and laid it on the ground for a place to sit. I pulled off my leather and fur coat from my shoulder and felt a slight pain.

I curled my lip in discomfort and pulled my arm out of the sleeve of my shirt. The damn cut got opened during the fight.

I groaned quietly in frustration as I tried peering over my shoulder with great struggle.

Adrian saw what was happening and went to the horses to get some supplies to bandage it back up.

"Woah, you're just gonna cover it up?" Murphy interjected. "You're not going to clean it or stitch it up or anything?"

We both turned head at the exact time, staring the prisoner up and down. "Why do you care?"

"Well, I mean I don't but I'm just saying, it could get infected." He shrugged.

"Well then, healer Murphy, what do you suggest we do?"

"I'm no medical expert or doctor or whatever but usually people pour alcohol or something on it then stitch it shut so they don't get huge scars."

I looked at Adrian and jerked my head. He got up and got the last flask of ale, handing it over. "This is such a stupid idea." I muttered under my breath before pouring some of it down my shoulder.

It stung as the liquid rolled over my cut and I gasped while arching my back.

The stinging sensation diminished and I handed Adrian a cloth for him to wipe off the sticky beverage.

"How exactly do we 'stitch'?" I asked.

"With a needle and thread."

I tilted my head and my features dropped. "Do we look like people that own a needle and thread?"

"Well, no... but that fish hook in your hair could work." He said referring to the hook hanging with some beads. I pulled off the attachment and looked at it carefully. "Adrian, untie the prisoner, make sure he doesn't get his hands on any sticks."

I stood up and got a roll of old fishing line, it was the only thing we had that was close to being a thread.

I went back and saw Murphy sitting defenceless by my seating area.

I gave him both items and watched him curiously as he worked with the two items. His hands through were recently abused looked so soft, like he hadn't fought a single battle until recently. His hair was nutty, but it seemed to have darkened with filth. Somehow it was still clean, well, cleaner than the hair I've seen.

When he was done he looked up from his hands to me, his bright blue seeing into me.

I quickly turned and let him do his thing.

"I'm not exactly an expert at this, I've never done it before but I've seen it so..."

"Just do it." I said, pulling all of my hair off my back.

A cold finger brushed against my skin sending shivers down my spine and I shuddered.

"Sorry." He apologised quickly.

I shook my head. "Just do it." I repeated.

I thought that being touched by another would forever make me uncomfortable, but it seemed it really hadn't. It seemed Kai was now a distant memory, just some asshole I killed that one time.

I smiled through every stitch Murphy made, because pain didn't seem to matter anymore. I was silently dwelling on the past this whole time, thinking that it would catch up to me. All without thinking that, hey, maybe I'm actually happy now.

As testing as I thought these days have been, they weren't. They were adventures, fun, excitement. Thinking back on the past few weeks, it made me realise that I was actually happy.

Just pretend the fish hook didn't have its weird devil grip things and that when it straightened out it looked like a needle.