Look After You

As Julian slowly regained consciousness, the first thing he realized was that it didn't hurt to breath anymore.

His heartbeat accelerating from the knowledge that he was alive, he let out the tiniest little sigh, a smile gracing his face as he leaned farther back against the pillows.

Though his memory of what had put him in St. Mungos was sketchy at best, the blue eyes of his father glared down at him from beneath his eyelids.

Opening his eyes, he kept them firmly glued to the ceiling above, "Looks like Lisette's present worked after all." he rasped in French.

He didn't want to look around him and find himself in an empty room.

Lisette wiped a tear off of her face with one shaking hand. She stood with her back to the door of her father's room, still on the verge of sobbing. They had said he was stable, and that he could be released soon. They had said he would be okay... So then why wasn't he?

She took a deep breath, pushing it out of her mind like she did every time after she visited him. She wasn't done yet.

After a few minutes, the girl finally found her way to Julian's room. Once she had opened the door, Lisette couldn't bring herself to walk any further into the room. She smiled. He looked... well.... awful, but at least he seemed to be somewhat content.

"Hi," she said softly, feeling like if she broke the silence too abruptly she'd start crying again.

Karma was sitting sideways on the chair next to the bed, reading a paperback novel and silently gauging the emotions of Julian through their bond. She felt when he regained consciousness, and heard his random french spewing from his mouth. She'd been here since she'd brought him here, not willing to leave when the doctor tried to force her out. She'd sat right here during the procedures used to make him more... well, presentable. Nightmare, in cat form this time, was curled beneath the chair, apparently sleeping.

"This isn't about to become a crying fest, is it?" Karma muttered in accented French. "I've been here the whole time and I haven't cried." She looked over at Julian, raising an eyebrow. "Oh. Your father's still alive by the way. Nightmare only slightly tore him limb from limb." And then she was reading again, back into her world of literature and fantasy.

Collin had heard that Julian was in St. Mungos he had no idea what had put him there but he didn't care, he just wanted to see him suffering like he was suffering. He was hoping that he would be alone but when he arrived at the room he noticed that two other people where there, dang it he thought.

He just decided to wait outside the room to see if the two girls inside would leave. Julian and him had a few things to settle.

Deciding that he had to look around sooner or later, Julian glanced over at Karma beside him, giving her a smile that for the world looked more like a grimace.

At the sound of aproaching footsteps, he turned towards the door. Giving Lisette a weak smile, he pulled himself up into a sitting position, crossing his legs beneath him.

"Hi yourself," he said softly to her. "You can come closer, you know. Getting beat up isn't contagious." Smirking slightly, he pulled at the hospital gown, hating the way it rubbed against his skin.

Taking in her appearance, he bit his lip before glancing at Karma and then back to her, "How is he?" he asked, referring to her father.

Glancing back at Karma, he raised an eyebrow, "Maybe that says something about you." Flinching as she mentioned his father, he hugged his knees to his chest. "You attacked my father with - whatever Nightmare is. How nice."

Kallie had been in the room earlier, but feeling restless about just standing there, besides she had wanted to give the children a moment she had gone out to see which hospital attendant she could yell into doing something.

As she walked by she noticed a boy standing in the hall. She frowned slightly.

"You know young gentleman, it is not polite to lurk outside of doors. One would think if you had an honest reason for being in a place, you would not lurk outside of said place," she raised her eyebrow at the boy before moving to open the door, not bothering to wait for him to answer. She left it hanging open after her, an unsaid message there. Either you were coming into speak to her apprentice or you weren't hiding in hall.

She was not going to have some childish spat cause the boy more suffering at the moment.

"Julian," she smiled slight at seeing the boy alert. She stayed near the edge of the room, not wishing to make the other children feel uncomfortable. "It is good to see you awake."

Ninette had been in the room the whole time.

She just perfered to act like she wasn't. She let Lisette do the water works, and Karma do the unaffected hero thing. She was just going to stay in the corner, and attract as little attention as possible.

Her gaze though never wavered from the boy. He looked worse than after one of their fights...

She couldn't even find amusement out of her own joke.

"Rousseau," she noddded as he woke up, and flicted her gaze back up as the older woman - the minister - came back into the room.

Other than that, she remained where she was. Silently watching.

Harmonie had been toying with a stuffed animal's ear absently, pacing through a corridor a few away from Julian's room, when she heard the low, muffled buzz of conversation. Was he awake?

Making a beeline to the room, small heels clicking quietly against the floor, the girl took a moment to frown at Collin, before shaking her head and slipping past the Minister and into the room, not taking much time to greet anyone. Determined neither to remain unaffected by Lissette's tears, or to become as sulky as Nine, the girl stood at the foot of his bed, and thrust the teddy bear outwards in display.

"Frank Midas Teddy," she introduced the cuddly toy, and tossed it gently into Julian's lap. "A gift from Lodie and I. She named it," she lied quickly, quite enjoying the name herself. Harm shrugged at him, "I would let her introduce him herself, but I can't find her." she smiled apologetically, just about ready to kill her younger twin.

Collin could not help but roll his eyes at all the female bodies that needed to pay Julian some kind of attention. It was not like he didn't have any right to be there than the next person, he just was not one who needed to make his presence known to everyone.

"When people leave I will go in." He just didn't want to be in with everyone else and no one would probably understand.

Listening to them talk things were coming to light with him.

Lisette frowned, "He's... alive." She shook her head, managing another smile, "He's fine. But that doesn't matter right now. What about you? How are you holding up after..." She let the question trail off, realizing where it was headed.

She stepped into the room, leaning against the wall and watching the others file in, a soft smile on her face. She was glad that Julian was okay, and that he had all these people who cared so much about him.

There was still that underlying horror to the situation, but it was smothered by all the affection. It was... well... sort of nice.

Every time he blinked, he felt like more people were appearing around him. Rubbing his eyes, Julian glanced up at his mentor. Giving her a small smile, he nodded, "It's good to be awake."

But he couldn't help but feel weird. Frowning into his lap, he decided that he felt oddly numb. Blaming the potions that were undoubtedly swirling through his system, he flicked his gaze up to Nine. "Ninette." he said dully and instantly winced from the tone of his voice.

Turning towards Harmonie as she entered, he grinned at the teddy bear, "Thank you," he said softly, hugging the bear, "Tell Lodie that the name's adorable."

Looking back at Lisette, he smiled, "Well that's good, right?" Shrugging slightly, he fiddled with Frank's ear. "I've been better. A hell of a lot better, actually. But I'll get better." he grinned, "After all, don't I always?"

Kallie smiled slightly at the children. Their reactions verying greatly, though she felt she could figure out which children were which from personalities he'd heard. She could imagine the brooding one in the corner was most likely the girl he'd quirreled.

"Are you feeling... well I suppose better isn't the right word, but - not quite so near death?" she spoke softly, as she wandered gracefully through the room and took a seat near the bed. "You had us a little scared there, lapsi."

Spoiler:

Ninette looked up at his voice, eyes and face blank as her head and heart warred between worry and relief. He appeared to be okay but he looked and sounded...

No.

She wasn't going to go there, and she wasn't going to care. Rousseau could stand for himself, and that was that.

"Look who's getting sympathy," she muttered, a dark smirk on her face, "I'd almost suggest you'd do this for attention. If you weren't so..."

She shrugged and smirked agian, not even really caring if she sounded rude or, awful. She was Ninette Fontaine. What else did they expect from her?

Ondrea stood, leaning against an adjacent wall up the corridor from Julian's room. Her mother had 'let slip' that the boy had been brought in, oh-so-nonchalantly hinting that Ondrea should pay him a visit. From what she could hear, the boy had visitor's aplenty.

The surviving Raven twin was stationed outside the boy's door. He obviously wasn't up to any good. (Ondrea ignored the sub-audible growl that this thought brought in the back of her throat. After all, why should she care? She didn't. At all.)

Letting out a sigh, Ondrea finally went to the mediwitches' desk and asked for a pen and piece of paper.

Dear Julian, she penned in French.

Heard you were at St. Mungo's and thought I might drop in. I decided it would be better not to disturb your fan club.

Get better. Take care of yourself.

She left it unsigned, folding the note in half and placing it atop the box of sweets she had brought with her.

"Aren't you Healer Montgomery's girl?" one of the mediwitches asked as she looked up.

Ondrea offered a slightly strained smile. "Um, yeah," she replied. "That's me. Could someone take this Julian Rousseau for me? I was going to visit, but he's got quite a few guests, already." The girl gave the room number and one of the women went to deliver the small gift for her.

Pausing a few steps from the desk, Ondrea glanced after the mediwitch, then let out a small, incredulous huff. "Don't say I don't care," she muttered. Continuing down the hall, the werewolf left, intent on being as far away from the place as possible, physically, even if her thoughts did still linger.

Merlin, this was an odd collection of people. With all wildly different personalities- Harm wasn't entirely sure if it was safe to have them all in the same room.

"Will do," she responded to Julian, not even bothering to try to figure out where Lodie was. The girl somehow always found a way to get lost. She sometimes found herself surprised that Lodie remembered her way around Beauxbatons.

The Prideux turned round to face Ninette as she spoke, and watched her for a few moments. Shaking her head at the girl, a small smirk tugging at her lips, Harm perched herself at the edge of Julian's bed, otherwise completely ignoring the remark.

She wasn't here for Ninette.

Harm poked the boy's foot playfully, in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Hey- which side of the chicken has the most feathers?" she quickly made up, deciding a bad joke would be the best chance. Lodie was better at this than she was. This was all just her imitating her twin, now.

Lisette nodded with a wane smile, his optimism cheering her up a bit, "Yeah." Who knew? Maybe things weren't as bad as she thought they were. Maybe her dad would get better, and she wouldn't have to worry anymore.

She managed a small laugh. It was amazing how happy he seemed to be, even in spite of the situation, "Of course, you're Julian Rosseau, aren't you? I'd expect nothing less."

Did he feel better? Looking up at Kallie, he shrugged non-commitedly. Sure, he didn't feel as bad as he had in that alley, but he still didn't feel good. Part of him wanted to send them all away and crawl into a tiny ball and just die, because the memories of the pain and his father's words hurt more than anything else. And - and had they actually thought that he'd been about to die? He'd thought that himself, especially when his father had pulled a knife on him, but except for him and Karma, no one else in the room even knew about that.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice cracking, hating the way his eyes pricked. Crying didn't solve his problems. He'd learnt that a long time ago. "For - for this. I really need to stop pissing people off." Because if he hadn't responded to the devil's spawn comment, he wouldn't have gotten bashed into a wall. Rubbing the bridge of nose, he stared down at his lap.

"Yeah, totally Nine," he said dully, not looking up to meet her gaze. "I do this on purpose because I want attention. Because it's so much fun getting beat up." If she knew who'd done this to him, she'd never be saying that to him. But she wasn't going to know because she didn't need to know. None of them did. And besides, it was a wonder that he'd been able to hide the bruises from all of them. If they didn't care enough to notice, they sure as hell didn't need to know.

Flinching back from Harmonie's touch, he met her gaze for a fraction of a second before quickly glancing away, mumbling an apology as he shifted away from her. What was wrong with him? He didn't freak out when people touched him. But then again, he'd never been beat up this had before. There was always a first time for everything, right? Looking back at her, he thought for a moment, but his mind was pulling blanks. "I don't know," he shrugged lamely, "The left side?"

Turning to Lisette, he returned her smile weakly, fiddling with Frank's ear. She shouldn't - it wasn't that he wanted her to leave, but her father had to be more important to her than he was. Because she had a loving family, and he was nothing but a friend. And as important and great as he liked to pretend he was, in the grand scheme of things, he was one person. There were billions of people who were more important than he was. Tightening his grip on the stuffed animal, he bit his lip before slowly relaxing his grip. "Good, don't ever underestimate me."

Glancing towards the door as he heard it slowly creak open, he tensed, gaze flickering around the room. Who -? Lodie, she hadn't shown up. It - it was probably her. Calming down, he blinked up at the medi-witch who showed up instead. "Julian Rousseau?" she asked softly, shuffling in. At his nod, she smiled before handing him the box and note, "These were left for you." she explained before quickly exiting.

Watching her leave, he glanced down at the box, putting the note to the side to see what was in it. Giving the collection of candy a smile, he looked back at the note, unfolding it. Tilting his head slightly, he shook his head. He'd almost died and someone was trying to make him guess who they were? Though, he had to admit that he did appreciate the gift. Scanning the letter again for clues to the identity of the sender, he ran his fingers across the writing. It seemed distinctly female, and the fan club comment...

Ondrea.

Shaking his head amusedly, he reminded himself to thank her the next time he saw her. Putting down the note beside him, he pulled one of the candies out, staring at it before popping it into his mouth. It wasn't like he threw up after everything he ate. No, that would mean he had a problem, and he had no such problem.

"Want one?" he asked, his gaze flicking around the room questioningly.

"Ell-hay eah-yay I-ay ant-way ome-say ucking-fay andy-cay. Een-bay ere-hay ages-ay!" The package of sweets was on her lap in seconds, though she didn't seem to move at all. Vampire speed was a beautiful thing. "Ou-yay eriously-say derestimate-unay ow-hay ad-bay he-tay ood-fay is-ay ere-hay." She plucked two of the chocolates out and plopped them into her mouth, chewing them easily before swallowing. She had finished half the box before she glanced up at the people around her, noting the additions for the first time.

"Oh, hey people." She leaned her head backward, looking over at Julian. "You didn't introduce me. Rude much?" She switched to French easily, almost without thinking about it. "I'm Karma, for those who don't know. I'm the one who saved him and got him here." She stood easily, holding the box of chocolates out to Julian once more. Once he'd taken them, she returned to her previous spot across the two chairs, kicking her legs back up and opening the book once more.

Nightmare, from her place under Karma's chair, yawned, showing off her small, kitten teeth before standing and padding out from the shadows. She was small, could be held in the palm of one hand, even, and barely notable in the size of the room. Weaving between the legs of the children around her, the small black kitten finally came to a stop beside the bed, where it leaped on top and mewed softly, making its way toward Julian.

With little more ado, the kitten stepped lightly onto the boy's lap and leapt from there to his shoulder, and finally to his hair. Her weight was barely there, as she curled up in a ball and fell back asleep, purring softly.

In her chair, Karma relaxed slightly as the kitten began to purr.

Kallie smiled slightly from where she sat.

"Thats good then," she spoke softly. "I'm sure it will all be mostly up hill from here. Who knows Lapsi, maybe this means you can get a trip too."

She gave a slight laugh, making refrence to the last time they were both there, before she settled in her seat, and was content to stay exactly where she was, watching the children talk.

~~

Ninette snorted and rolled her eyes, "Don't be such a baby; I may be a bitch but I'm not completely heartless. You knew perfectly well I didn't think you'd do something... like this."

She pushed herself off the wall, walked over stole one of the few chocolates Karma had left for Julian.

"Besides, you care about your face too much."

With that comment, she turned on her heals, "I'm going home. Mama, and Grandmama wanted a report anyways."