Late afternoon, Pratt's Knoll Cottage. 4.30pm.

The plan had been to drop by the flat after her shift, change clothes, maybe pick up some take-away from the deli around the corner before apparating up to Eddie Pratt's home up in Yorkshire. That was the plan. A complication with one of her long-term patients at the hospital was not in the plan however, delaying Vivienne's afternoon intentions by a whole hour.

It was therefore a little later than expected when she appeared on the narrow path leading up to the cottage, lunch (or tea, really) packed neatly into her bag and trenchcoat rightly buttoned up. August. It was already quite cold this up north. Viv suppressed a shiver as she made her way towards the house and knocked on the front door: twice, softly.

No answer. She was late, after all... he didn't know when to expect her. Hesitantly, she turned the door knob and pushed; it swung inwards and the witch smile wryly to herself. Nobody around to break in. Not here, the middle of nowhere. "Bonjour?" she called out upon entering. The door shut creakily and she wandered down the passageway, unbuttoning her coat : "Eddie? Sorry I'm la--"

And there her auror was. Moreso an auror than usual, sat up on the couch in his red working robes and snoring softly. Vivienne sighed and pulled off her coat, throwing it aside. Poor man. He looked so tired. Quietly as possible, she put down her bag and edged closer to the couch. Her grey eyes didn't stray once from Ed's face. His sleeping countenance was adorable.

What better way, she thought (with a touch of self-satisfaction), to recover from a hard day's work than to wake up to a stunning witch draped across you? Viv's smile widened a little. "Coucou, mon amor..." she slipped herself astride onto the wizard's lap, arms around his neck: "Time to wake up, Eddie."

The auror hadn’t changed after his night shift at the ministry. It was his turn to have a succession of shifts throughout the night and it was his turn to go answer the red sparks when the hitwizards were busy. Most night shifts passed by dully. He would take the time sat alone in a dark office to get up to date with parchment and reports before Raynor could breathe down his neck some more. Obviously the reports were never neatly written. They never had been and never would be. Eddie knew for a fact that if his hand writing became legible the parchment load would be doubled and he would get even less time out of the office.

Unfortunately it hadn’t been a usual nightshift. The hitwizards had all been otherwise distracted when the office was called to a scene. That left the blond auror to begrudgingly go and deal with a moaning old bat considering loud teenage wizards outside her cottage to be reason to call the magical law enforcement out. Ed had underestimated the situation.

And now he sat on his couch a couple of house after finally returning from work. His leg had been a dull ache until exhaustion had finally sent him to sleep, sat upright on the comfortable settee. Any thoughts of the engagement with Viv had long since been forgotten until he was abruptly woken with a pain shooting through the wounded leg.

Bright green eyes shot open wide to focus upon a witch climbing into his lap, her arms snaking around his neck. White teeth grinded hard together and a sharp breath was quickly inhaled as Eddie tried to breathe through the agony her mere contact was presently causing.

“I’m...” The auror began to hiss through teeth tightly grit together, “awake.”

That wasn't exactly the reaction she was looking for.

Vivienne tilted her head to the side, confused but untroubled by the wizard's tone of voice as his green eyes came into focus. Not enough sleep, maybe, or just grumpy after naps. She smiled at him and raised a suggestive eyebrow: "Not awake enough, non? My poor auror."

Clearly he'd been through a difficult day. The witch inclined herself forward and pressed her lips softly against his cheek. Her arms pulled her nearer to him, closing the gap between them. "I brought some food," she murmured as she rested her brow against his: "But I'm a little hungry for something else right now..." Not that he needed it spelled out for him.

Aurors weren't that dense. Viv slowly ran a hand down from Ed's shoulder to his chest, her hand pale against the red of his robes. Oh, how she hated those robes. All the better to see them off of him. She stopped at the buttons of the shirt he wore underneath: "I could just eat you up."

Then, a little abruptly, she pulled back before leaning in again to meet his lips-- biting down.

Oh Vivienne was so very wrong. In many many ways. Primarily, Eddie was plenty awake. He was so awake he felt the wound he had roughly tried to close with a basic healing spell start to tear apart under her own legs. He was awake enough to stop himself from howling out in pain as she made no move to climb off him and leave the wound in peace. Could Vivienne not see the look on her auror’s face!?

Vivienne leaned closer into Eddie, pressing her leg down harder against his own and the auror let out a deep moan, trying to breathe through the agony his girlfriend was now unknowingly causing him. Unfortunately, the groan would no doubt be taken as great acceptance of what she was doing and permission for her to carry on and do more. Yet the auror had absolutely no plans of telling her what was up. She’d mentioned in passing the difficult aurors she’d always had to heal and he certainly wasn’t going to be one of them. Once he got her off him he would go into the bathroom and sort himself out. His leg would be fine in the morning.

He just had to get Viv out of the cottage for the moment.

Leaving Eddie’s home was obviously far from Viv’s mind as her fingers traced from his shoulders to his chest and the open collar of the white shirt he wore.

"I could just eat you up." the pain causing vixen surmised before she pulled back abruptly, causing a loud groan to escape Eddie’s lungs as he pushed his head back against the sofa, hands gripping her thighs extremely tightly. Any other time and he would have been having the time of his life. Right now he wanted her off his lap and as far away as possible.

She was back, pushing against the wound before soft lips touched his and bit down.

“Argh!” The auror groaned before pulling his head back. Tiny beads of sweat were forming on his brow and his bright green eyes stared up at Vivienne. “The ah.....food. Why don’t you,” he winced “go and warm it up...luv?”

Vivienne often enjoyed the fact that her auror, in spite of the occasional irregularity, was a straightforward man. He was plainly happy or plainly angry or plainly miserable or plainly whatever-he-happened-to-be-feeling-at-the-moment So when he jerked his head back from her kiss with a negative exclamation, it was no surprise that she felt a little bewildered.

The expression on her face said just as much. Her brow wrinkled into a worried frown and she gaped at Ed Pratt, not sure if she should feel offended or concerned... it hadn't been all that sharp a bite, really.

But no, it wasn't the bite. Her gaze focused on his face more calmly as he said something about the food, green eyes meeting her grey ones. Vivienne jaw tightened into a grimace and she shook her head, more to herself than to whatever he'd muttered. She should have noticed earlier! Still in his working robes, the look on his face when he woke up and now this.

"Ed," she said slowly as she leaned away and very smoothly slid off of his lap, into the space next to him on the couch: "Are you alright?" Then, not really waiting for an answer, she briefly centered her attention on his form... not the head, no. He didn't flinch when she was fiddling with his shirt, either.

The Healer glanced down at his lap before glancing back up. "Do you think you coul--" she paused, biting her lower lip to avert an untimely smirk: "... and I do mean this in the most asexual way possible. Do you think you could take off your trousers, Auror Pratt?"

Finally Merlin began to look down upon Eddie with a small amount of sensitivity and prompted the witch to slip from upon his lap, casing an exhaled breath as he leg glided over the wound but in general allowing relief to take hold. With no one touching it and without moving it was a dull achy pain that he could breathe through and act as if nothing was wrong. Vivienne was certainly not getting what she wanted tonight and Eddie cursed his leg and his night shift for that very reason.

On any other afternoon after work, being woken up from a nap by a sexy French lady sat astride you would have been a dream come true and she would have been very quickly stripped, thrown onto the sofa and very much seen to. Today he couldn’t wait to get her off his lap and out of his living room. Green eyes warily glanced across to her and he frowned deeper. She was looking at his torso, then his legs, analysing him.

Viv knew something was up and Eddie wasn’t happy about this fact.

"Are you alright?" She asked, seemingly already having decided upon an answer.

Eddie grit his teeth and nodded. “O’course.” He muttered, folding his arms over his chest. Lying and keeping a poker expression was normally so easy for the auror yet right now it just wasn’t believable. Perhaps that was because he really wanted to start blubbing like a baby about the pain that made him want to chop his leg off.

The next question, at any other time, would have caused a big smirk to grow on his lips before he responded with a smart remark. Right now he gifted Vivienne a scowl before pushing himself up from the sofa.
“No I bloody won’t.” He muttered as the irritation in his voice mixed with the strain to pull the words together in a head swimming in pain. “Just go ‘ome, Vi-.” A foot was placed forward and the pain that shot through his limb overpowered his senses and caused another groan of pain. It hadn’t been this bad before she’d got near him! A hand was placed on the mantelpiece and he leaned against it. So perhaps all of a sudden he really didn’t want her going anywhere.

“No I bloody won’t.”

It was like trying to treat a child. And not the sweet, cherubic kind.

The Healer narrowed her eyes as Eddie told her, quite bluntly, to go on home and leave him be... or he would have, if he hadn't decided to stand up just then and cause Merlin knows what else damage to his leg injury. She had worked out which leg it was on by now but kept a careful eye on it for a sign of bleeding-through.

Hearing his cry of pain however, Viv was on her feet in a flash and by his side at the fireplace just as swiftly. "Merde, that doesn't sound good," she murmured as she took a hold of his arm, first searching his face (perspiration, aggravation, warmth) and then lowering her gaze back to the leg: "That doesn't look good either."

Growing blots of crimson seeped through the trouser material, a darker red than his robes. Severe wand damage, maybe? She needed a better look at it. Vivienne squeeze her auror's arm in the usual, reassuring way and then forced herself not to look at the blood. "Sit... wait, no. Lay down on the couch. Take off your trousers," her voice was all at once steadfast and competent: "And don't even think about saying no or, I swear Eddie, I'll make you take them off."

Why hadn't he told her earlier? Jésus, the man was insane, he should have informed her the moment he woke up. Viv attempted to lead him over to the couch they'd been on, tugging on his arm gently. It was worrying, that he'd rather she left him alone to deal with the wound. This was her job; hospital or not.

The pain and Vivienne’s speediness to be at his side and lecture him about the injury just served to make the auror even more irritated and closer to snapping at her. He wanted to be left alone to sort his own problem out then go to bed, sleep and wake in the morning bright as new with a perfectly healed leg. He looked down at Vivienne whose hand was squeezing his arm. Now that she knew what had happened and she had that ‘I know more that you’ healer look in her eye, Eddie knew he wasn’t going to get rid of her unless he hexed her out of his front door.

For the first time since they’d started seeing one another he cursed the fact she cared. But only momentarily because he realised he had no choice but to give in and let her lead him towards the sofa. The steps were taken slowly, carefully and thankfully, only a couple had to be taken. The living room was perfectly small and after a couple of very painful limps the man fell back onto the sofa looking somewhat defeated.

“Ye’d make a great prison guard.” The auror scowled up at his girlfriend from the sofa as he tried to once more control his breathing. He was certainly not going to lie down. Two hands moved down to his waist and reluctantly undid the button, pulling the zip down. Vivienne was supposed to think of him as the strong man she was dating, not the big baby who didn’t want a healer to fix his leg.

After a few moments of reluctant fumbling, a few winces in pain and a refusal to make eye contact with Viv, Eddie’s trousers had been pushed down off his legs revealing a pair of grey pants that looked like they’d seen better days and the black socks she secretly had such an aversion to. Not that either of these would attract the attention of any onlooker. The main interest was the large gash across his upper thigh, the edges purple and the blood certainly not looking as red as it should.

“It were fine until you sat on it.”

Prison guard was probably one of the kinder things Vivienne could remember herself being called in the process of treating a an injury. Even if he'd said anything worse, she wouldn't have noticed; her mind was all work now. For a little while, Ed Pratt had to be her patient and not her auror.

He didn't seem very happy with this arrangement but she ignored the grumpiness and waited patiently as the trousers were removed. Her lips tightened into a painful expression as the wound was revealed... she didn't spare a glance to his worn out pants or even the look on his face. The wound was most evidently severe. Viv sat next to Ed, tucking up her legs so that she could face him and the thigh injury. She drew out her wand from her back pocket as she did this and glanced up in time to hear the wizard say: “It were fine until you sat on it.”

He was right, though she stopped herself from responding that they might have avoided this if he'd just told her about the injury when he woke up. Instead, she sighed and returned to examining the wound. Under different circumstances... life endangering circumstances, Vivienne wouldn't trust herself to heal Eddie. But this was manageable if she  didn't think too hard about it. "Just stay still," she told him as her free hand moved to the purple edges of the wound to very lightly prod it.

Standard laceration, nasty and well-aimed. Attempted patch-up but clearly it must have been torn open when she'd roused him. Infected, she thought to herself dryly. Could almost smell it. How did that happen? Clumsy healing. Her wand moved over to the opposing edge and she paused, thoughtful. "This is going to need some cleansing before I start on any healing. Hold on." 

Adroitly, Vivienne stood and left the room, glancing at Eddie only to remind him, in a detached tone "not to move" while she was gone. The bathroom. There were only a couple of cupboards to be searched and she found what she wanted quite quickly, a new bottle of cleansing potion sitting on the top shelf of a locked cabinet. Necessary in any house with an auror. Or children.

Upon returning to the living room, the Healer tried not to look at her patient's face. "Found it. Are you feeling alright? You might be a little feverish."

“Oh I have never felt better, Vivienne!” Eddie greeted his girlfriend as she returned to the room to find him not having moved from his spot. He was too worried about the repercussions from her to do so. The leg didn’t worry him as much as a healer when you disobeyed their instructions. Pain and blood he could handle, women were a less easily controllable phenomenon.  Especially French women, he had surmised as he waited for her to return and do her thing.

He had waited rather anxiously. More often than not, a healer doing their thing was far more painful than simply leaving it as is. Healers seemed to have very little understanding of it they could see flesh, not to give it a good poke and if they could see blood, not to try to smear their hands in it. Blood was not war paint. You didn’t need extensive amounts on your hands and robes to show you have done your job properly.

“Absolutely hunky dory,” The auror continued to mutter. “Last night at work I just thought ‘hmmm, I wonder what will make tonight’s shift more interestin’...’ So I just let some bastard lowlife take a chunk out me leg so you could have fun puttin’ me back together. Such fun!” Maybe he was feeling feverish...

The auror put his head back against the sofa and took a breath. He was okay when he could sit there without anyone sat on him or poking about in the wound. “O’course I ‘ent feverish, Viv. This has happened countless times.” His sweat speckled forehead was certainly not going to get a mention!

Oh, for heaven's sake.

Vivienne resisted the urge to roll her eyes and dropped back down onto the couch, pulling out a clean handkerchief from her pocket as she turned in the wizard's direction. He was talking nonsense, wonderfully sarcastic nonsense, and very evidently suffering from a fever. "Yes, yes. You're very brave and manly, mon amor."

The cloth was dampened with some of the cleansing potion... it smelled like lavender and tea tree, which was a touch more pleasant than the kind they used at St.Mungo's. Viv ran a free hand through her hair, frowning as she regarded the wound again. This was going to hurt a little but he probably knew that. She closed her eyes, only for a second, and then very calmly began to clean the wound with the white handkerchief. The material was soft and absorbent, quickly soaking up the access blood around the edges.

Not paying much attention to anything else Ed was saying, she pressed down harder as she moved towards the exposed flesh of the gash. It had to be relatively sterile before she closed it up. This all took about a good minute but even she felt like it had been a lot longer than that by the time the cloth was pulled away. The purple edges of the wound appeared more faint now but the flesh looked terribly raw.

"There. I'll start healing it and you should begin to feel better soon. Maybe." No promises, she thought dryly and found her wand once more to start on the task. Viv placed one hand on an unharmed part of Ed's thigh, to hold the leg steady, and glanced up at his face. Perspiration, off-colour. Still feverish.

A thought occurred to her. This was probably one of the few opportunities she would have of him being... more or less incapacitated. Incapable of throwing a fit. She'd be quite the fool to waste it.

The witch bit her lower lip and looked down subversively, tip of the wand moving along the gashes of the edge. "Staima," she whispered to halt any further bleeding before beginning to close up the wound. Her voice was steady as she spoke but a very subtle, nervous tone ran in the undercurrent.

"I've been thinking," Viv started: "Since last week, when you told me about your children. You were very honest." The edges  of the injury faded from purple into a pale, reddish pink-- and then into a more neutral colour. "I was wondering if... if I had any serious relationship history. Would you want to know about it? Nothing like children or anything..." she trailed off. Her gaze remained on the gradually closing gash. Her ears felt warm.

And there Viv was, being a typical healer. Giving his painful wound a good poke with a teatowel and no doubt rejoicing in the experience. Healers didn’t want to help people and stop the pain, they wanted to cause more pain to the vulnerable. Not that Ed considered himself vulnerable, but in rather a bit of discomfort at the present moment as she dabbed, wiped and dabbed a bit harder at the raw skin around the chunk of bare flesh obviously begging for a good poke from her too.

While his healer poked, Eddie watched. His expression was strained, features tight as he tried to breathe through the pain her fiddling was causing. Then she stopped and a hand landed on his thigh. At any other time he’d have been on that in a shot. Right now he closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. ‘Healing it’ meant pulling the skin back together, more painful than her having a good poke around in the wound.

If he’d have been in St Mungo’s he’d have no doubt been given a pain potion. As it was he wasn’t showing weakness by asking Viv for one. Ed was going to be the strong auror she thought knew she was dating.

"I've been thinking,"

The pain caused the auror to gasp and grip the cushions of the sofa as Vivienne chose now to start a conversation. She chose now to congratulate him on being honest when all he wanted was to squirm away from her grip and go and cower in the corner with his sore limb. This was not the time to tell him she had a secret husband or something equally as pressing.

“You...ah...” he winced and closed his eyes momentarily as his respiration sped up “should tell....ugh...tell me later.”

Later. Later was good. And never would be better if she had her way.

Deciding not to reply to her auror's response, she continued with the healing. Her wand progressed smoothly along the perimeter of the gash. It circled the edges slowly, carefully-- each rotation pulled tightly at the skin around it, bringing it closer in while the depth as well as width of exposed flesh began to diminish. It wasn't a pretty sight but in her mind's eye she could envisage the appearance of the secured injury: nothing but a scar that may or may not eventually disappear.

A pity they weren't at the hospital. She would have appreciated having its array of salves and potions, prepared to properly purify or soothe a patient's wound.

"Your fever will break within the hour," Viv broke the silence which, up to now had only been punctuated by Eddie's uneven breathing pattern: "And your leg will be fine, if you don't perform any strenuous activities for the rest of today." With a gentle flick of the wrist, the light from the wand burnt brightly and then faded. She drew it away from the wound; it was closing on its own accord now. A jagged, rough line that ran along his thigh.

The witch finally dragged her gaze up to look at Ed's face, a very calm smile pulling at her lips. Healing was as therapeutic to her as it was beneficial to a patient: "Désole. I know that hurt," she placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and then leaned in to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

Finally, finally she was finished with her poking and torturing and the witch withdrew her wand from his injury. About time too...thought the man who had tiny beads of sweat upon his forehead and was very much focusing on his breathing. This was certainly a wizard that disliked being healed. He was the sort of wizard to prefer sitting there uncomfortably in pain rather than letting someone to tend to him and exploiting his weaknesses.

Yet after, when it was healed, he felt gratitude. Not enough to verbally mention it, however. Eddie never felt that much gratitude. Even to his lovely healer with the sexy French accent and funny coloured trousers.

Viv placed a hand on his shoulder and pecked his cheek with soft lips he was usually so eager to have on his own. The auror closed his eyes, slowing down his breathing before his dark blond eyebrows knit together and his forehead creased into a frown, betraying the slow onset of wrinkles, a hazard of such a stressful job and so many children.

“No strenuous activities?” He asked, slowly opening his eyes and peering across at her as he shuffled slightly to get more comfortable. This caused him to wince ever so slightly. “So I suppose there’s no resuming what ye were up to before, luv?” A wizard couldn’t be blamed for trying, however in vain his efforts happened to be.

Watching her auror with a pleasant but cautious expression, Vivienne tried not to feel, too acutely, the relief of seeing him well again.  He was tired... she could see that, and it it made her wonder how it was Ed ever dealt with living on his own. For such a grump he didn't strike her as a solitary creature. The children probably made up for it.

Those green eyes were open again and the Healer smiled unconsciously, moving closer to him as he tried to adjust his position on the couch. His proposition made her blush, laughing lightly. Without question, he was feeling better. She slipped her arm around his as she curled up next to him on the couch, kicking shoes off onto the floor.

"Non, no strenuous activities," Viv replied and tilted her head back a little to grin at Eddie: "Food, if you're hungry, and lots of cuddling, maybe?" Her teddy bear.

What use was he if he was injured? The thought made her want to laugh again but she repressed the urge. "Whatever else you want," she added with an impudent wink.