The Garden of Heathen

Skeletons

Gertie flipped the light on, making Aussie clamp her eyes shut as she was unaccustomed to the brightness.

"God Aussie, you really look like garbage," Gertie remarked sadly as she set her bag down on the counter next to her.

Aussie's one good eye widened.
"Do I have all my teeth?" She suddenly asked herself as she stuffed fingers in her mouth to check, relieved when she found them all intact.

"Ooh you're definitely concussed," Gertie said as she walked around them to get to the sink and washed her hands. "She's not going to be very coordinated so just make sure she doesn't fall," she told Gally.

He moved back to his original position though he was more self conscious about it with Gertie around and the lights on. Now that he could see her better he had to admit that Aussie did look pretty bad. He felt an out of place sadness seep from his chest to his stomach. Why did he always get weird feelings around her?

Gertie put on rubber gloves and ripped open a package of sterile wipes, pushing up Aussie's sleeve and cleaning her arm off. Then she got out a metal cylinder, opening one end and pulling out a syringe.

"What's that for?" Gally asked, wondering why on earth Aussie needed to get stabbed after everything else she'd been through.

"Aussie has a bad stomach, pain pills make her sick. So, she gets a shot instead," Gertie explained as she poked and prodded Aussie's arm till it turned red to desensitize the area first. Aussie still winced when the needle stuck her.

Gally suddenly felt even worse for her, she seemed like the unluckiest girl in the whole world.

"Here, you're taller," Gertie said as she handed Gally some weird plier looking things with a damp cotton ball clamped in them. "You do her face while I work on her arm."

Gally held the clamps but just stared down at Gertie for a moment, not exactly comfortable with her instructions. She finally looked up at him and got annoyed.

"Oh come on, just dab that on the cut to clean it, then I'll give you some antibiotics and bandaid to put on it. She took that hit for you, ya know," The small girl griped at him as she held up Aussie's forearm, gently cleaning the debris from her scrape.

Gally straightened up from his leaning position, but his shoulders drooped from being reminded of the reason Aussie's face looked like hamburger.

"Oh, it's not his fault," Aussie retorted. "It was Athena's."

She suddenly bit her lip again and a look like shame crossed her face. Gally wasn't sure what she had to feel ashamed about, she was one tough cookie. He swallowed before starting the task of cleaning her face. He tried to be extra gentle but Aussie still flinched at first before apologizing to him of all things.

Joan came in the house just then, gaining everyone's attention. She seemed exhausted but also mildly satisfied as she grabbed a chair from the living room area and drug it into the kitchen. She plopped down in it with a sigh and crossed her arms.

"Well, Aussie," She spoke at last. "You're in charge now."

"What?" Aussie blurted, quite unsatisfied. "Why?"

Gally looked at her, confused as to why she was confused. He figured that since Aussie had challenged Thena in the first place it was kind of obvious that she'd be taking over.

"Why do you think?" Joan replied, clearly riding the same train of thought as Gally.

"I didn't want to be in charge," Aussie almost whined. "I was going to nominate you to be in charge."