Here Comes The Son (Ghost Band / Papa Emeritus fic)

I Feel That Ice is Slowly Melting

The battle had been surprisingly short, a little less than thirty minutes in all but impossibly taxing on Copia and his ghouls. All nine of them had at some point woken in the infirmary, being the first department to relocate back to the abbey, the lucky ones were treated for minor injuries and allowed to leave but it still left Phantom, Aurora and Dew confined to beds, with two of them yet to wake. The large room previously occupied by just Copia had now been filled with additional beds to accommodate some of the ghouls, severely limiting the amount of space for doctors and nurses and yet the treated ghouls, with the exception of Rain, remained huddled in a corner together, still insisting on staying with the rest of what they considered their family.

Larson looked down at the chart before looking up again, smiling at the ghoul sitting up in the bed awaiting the hopefully good news.

"You're going to be fine, Dew," she nodded. "We'll get your lacerations stitched and then a couple more days, I think and we can discharge you."
"A couple more days?" Dew complained. "I'm fine."
"No you're not, and besides, if I thought you were going to go back to the Den and take it easy, maybe I'd let you go earlier, but the stitches, particularly the ones going behind your knee will be in a really awkward place and I know you're just going to sit in the pile in the corner with the others and that'll do you no good at all. A couple more days will give it a better chance to heal before you start treating it badly."
"Don't give the doctor a hard time, Dew, just do as you're told, okay?" Stone chuckled, used to his complaints. "He's not a good patient."
"I see that. Speaking of patients, where's Copia?" Larson looked around, puzzled. "He was here before."
"I discharged him... or well, he discharged himself. There wasn't a good enough physical reason to keep him and he was insistent. Rain's with him though. If he takes a turn for the worse, he's close by and Rain'll look after him."
"You weren't exaggerating about them," she noted, still taken aback at the depth of feeling they held for each other. "But I thought maybe he would have stayed with them."

Stone frowned, wondering whether or not to tell her but it made sense to. She might be joining them anyway plus she had witnessed the battle against Belial and helped in the aftermath.

"He will, but he's got a rather unpleasant duty to perform first."
"What's that?" She asked.
"He has to deal with the people who instigated Belial's summoning. The ones that tried to present him to Belial as a sacrifice to raise him to power."
"Oh! That sounds horrible."
"Yeah, it's worse because he knows some of them really well, or at least, he thought he did."
"Oh no!" Larson's face fell at the news. "Some of them were so-called friends?"
"The chief instigator he's been friends with for over thirty years." Stone explained.
"That must be devastating!" Larson gasped. "Does he have to do it now? Can't it wait until he's recovered?"
"It'll prey on his mind, I know him, he won't rest until it's done."
"Poor Papa!" She replied, her expression one of sadness.
"We'll look after him," Cirrus piped up, to murmurs of agreement.

Larson offered a wide smile towards the ghoul.

"He's very lucky to have you all and it seems you're lucky to have him too."

*

Copia could have waited a few days, or even a few weeks for this painful duty but he wanted it resolved one way or another. He wasn't even certain which way he wanted it to go, he wouldn't know until he was in there face to face with the man he had called a friend, a close friend, for over thirty years. The man who had betrayed him and tried to murder him for power and position.

He had returned to his chambers to shower and change first, to get at least the blood off himself. It wasn't all his and that made it even worse, demon blood gave a mild stinging sensation on his skin and he wanted it gone. Stripping off his torn and bloodied chasuble, cope and stole, he left them lying on the floor suddenly revolted by them. Removing the rest of his clothes, he wrapped his arms protectively across his chest as he stepped into the hot steaming shower, he had never felt so naked - both externally and internally. The fight with Belial had stripped him bare and he was desolate, destroyed. Yes, he had won but at what cost?