Ergastulum's New Sweetheart

Chapter 2

Kate's POV:

I awoke to the Docs voice ordering Nina to go get the 'Handymen' whoever that was. I got out of bed and laced up my shoes that had come undone during the night. When I moved the curtain I saw Dr. Theo sitting at a desk. "Oh, good, you're awake. Here's your painkillers I promised, don't take more than three a day, and no more than one every three hours." I nodded and grabbed the bottles.

"I wouldn't leave just yet." He warned me as I reached for the handle. "Why not?" I asked, he had cleared me yesterday. "Well there are some thugs outside, I've called for help already and a few friends of mine should be coming soon, but until then I wouldn't recommend going out there." 'I wonder if it's the guy from last night, coming to recruit me like he'd said he would' the thought alone made me shiver.

I turned back to the Doc, dropping my hand from the doorknob. "Well Doc, do you have a bathroom I could use?" He nodded and pointed towards his left, past the hospital beds he had. I walked that way and when I looked in the mirror I shuddered.

I looked like hell. I combed through my long brown hair and stuck it into a ponytail. I looked down at my stab wound and saw that it was still swollen. Otherwise it looked pretty bad ass. I smirked to myself. I was the only person who would think I looked like a bad ass. My normally vibrant green eyes were dull, probably from my lack of food or water. I had lost a little weight but didn't look unhealthy.

I shrugged and walked out to find the doc gone. Then I saw the end of a pole poke its way into the building. I ran out only to find the Doc trying to give some guy a shot and a tall black guy with huge muscles yelling. Behind the huge guy there were two other smaller looking skater type guys behind him. The Doc finally got off of the guy I could now identify as Nic.

"YoUr ThReE mInUtEs ArE uP." Nic slurred with a smirk while he pulled out a necklace. "Wait he's a Tag?" I asked out loud. Dr. Theo who was now standing beside me answered. "Yup, ranked pretty high too, but instead of taking this guy down he's been toying with him." As Nic and the other guy both went into the air Nic sliced him up like a piece of meat.

"I guess it was him or Nic." I told myself. Growing up in West Gate, you became okay with seeing people die because it was either them or you. I then saw Worrick, Nicolas, and the girl from last night walk back towards us.

"Hey! You're that girl from yesterday, are you okay?" I ran out to her. She was pretty beat up, no wonder she left, better me than her right? "Yeah, are you? I'm sorry for just leaving like that." She looked down, I guess beating herself up. "Hey don't sweat it, he barely nicked me." I bluffed.

Apparently the doctor heard my bluff and called me out. "Well if you call a slash five inches wide and four inches deep a knick then I'd hate to see what you call life threatening." I scoffed. "I'm fine." Worrick then approached us.

"Wait what? Somebody got you?" I waved my hand and noticed Nic was watching. "Yeah a few hours after you two left some asshole was hitting her and I stepped in and punched him in the face. After that he cornered me. Then some cops found me and brought me here." I finished.

"Damn, you punched a pimp in the face, this one's feisty. Wait was that guy?" Worrick didn't get to finish before the girl answered. "Berry, yeah." I paid no attention to them as I still didn't know her name or what they were talking about. I turned to Nicolas because he was just standing there.

"Hey you're pretty good with that sword." I smiled playfully, he smirked. "Yeah it gets the job done." He continued to smirk showing he was being sarcastic, because any weapon could 'get the job done' he just chose that one. "Back home I used to use throwing knives but I left them when I came here." I told him.

I'm guessing Nicolas missed the part where the Doc talked about my wound because he pointed to the rip in my shirt that was now covered in blood. "Can I see?" He signed. I explained that it wasn't that big of a deal, not wanting to make a scene when he's probably had worse. By now Worrick and the girl had come to join us. I lifted my shirt high enough for them to see my new stitches.

"Hmm he did get you pretty good, at least Doc was able to stitch you up." Worrick told me. The girl gasped. "Hey don't sweat it, it's sore but Doc gave me something to numb the pain." I waved them off. Nicolas signed something I didn't catch to Worrick, I was too busy looking at my ruined shirt.

"Good idea Nic. Hey Kate, why don't you let Nic, Alex, and I walk you home? We've gotta go get some things anyway." My eyes went wide at Worricks offer. "Nah, you guys don't have to, I'll be fine." I didn't want them to know I'd just been crashing in the alley next to Granny's. "Please we insist, now let's get going."

They had me lead the way and at the moment Alex was walking beside me. She was fiddling with her fingers. "So Kate, how do you know sign language?" She asked. I guessed she was trying to make conversation. "My mom went deaf while out in the field, soon after I found a book on sign language in an old book store by my house. After I brought it home we learned it together." I told her.

"So how're you handling this?" She asked as I turned the last corner before we came up on Granny's. "Handling what?" I wondered. I mean getting stabbed yesterday was no picnic, the way Doc made it sound the guy, Berry, had sliced into me rather than just stabbing me.

"Seeing that guy all cut up and bloody, just bleeding out on the ground." She looked down as if she was having a hard time digesting what had happened. "Well, where I'm from, it's not that odd of a sight. I've been seeing stuff like that since I was really young." She looked up at me with wide eyes. "I guess I'm glad we're not from the same place." I chuckled and just nodded.

"Alright we're here." I said and signed then motioned to the alley. "What? You've been staying here?" Granny then butted in before I could. "Yeah she sleeps in that alleyway, and because she ain't a whore I let her."

Worrick looked at me and shook his head. "No way, you've got a wound that could easily get infected. I can't just leave you out here. You can stay over at our place, we don't have a bed, but we've got a pretty comfortable couch right next to Alex." After Worrick finished Nic nodded.

"Alright, I'll accept but only on the condition that I cook and clean, to pay you guys back for letting me stay." I said sternly not wanting to argue about it. Worrick smiled and scratched the back of his head, "hey, sounds good to me, it's been a while since me and Nic had a good home cooked meal."