“I need a healer and a mediwitch!” Miranda Elliot yelled, her voice carrying across the floor as she ran the wheelchair through the large double doors. “A demi-vial of replenishing potion and…” Hell she didn’t know what had done the poisoning to know what to give.

The new Head Healer had been walking towards the hospital entrance only a few minutes ago when her eyes had been drawn to the spotted trail of blood on the ground beneath her. She’d looked up just as the wizard walking towards the doors had collapsed to the floor. It had been a split second before her wand was drawn and summoning a wheelchair from within the entrance to hurtle itself in their direction. She’d dropped to her knees, rolling the wizard over to reveal bloody gashes in his chest, face and arms. The large punch holes revealed it was a snake; a big one.

This was Elliot’s first day back at St Mungo’s and of course it had to go off like this. She’d not even made it to her office, or through the door before her dark purple dress was blooded and her decades of experience being required. This was what the witch had missed working in the school. Things this sudden and dangerous rarely happened. Children were tedious and senseless. Healing really got her adrenaline going and if she’d had any doubts about leaving the castle and less responsibility this morning that was gone.

A mediwitch ran up to Elliot, looking decidedly confused.
“Well don’t gawk! Where’s a spare bed?” The wizard was suddenly alert once more and let out a yell of agony trying to spring from the chair. Elliot launched forward, grabbing his shoulders and dragging him back down with a great deal of effort as he continued to yell and fight her off.

“HEALER!”

Jason smirked and joked with a couple of his healers at the station while he flipped through a chart. It was his job to know of everyone on the unit, and he liked to think that meant his staff as well. He nodded his head at a passing woman. “Helen... how’re the kids?” Things had been slowly but surely getting better in his life. The things that had happened to him at the end of the previous year had left him scarred and with nightmares, but it wasn’t as if he’d died.

Jason had to keep on living. Sam had left, which dropped Lewis from his life, but there was still Aidan. And now there was the constant enjoyment of Layla. Or constant when they made time for each other. He listened as the mediwitch told him how her young children were; one of them was looking forward to getting ready for Hogwarts. Eyebrows rose and he laughed. “You don’t say. Well... I’ve heard there are some fantastic professors working.”

There had been some terrible red tape in regards to Hogwarts thanks to the impersonation through polyjuice. Not that he had any need to go to the school; he could send others as representation for their ward to career day.

Helen excused herself, something about having to get back to work, and Jason went back to glancing over the chart. “You are planning on discharging Mr. Crawson, yes?” The healer he spoke to nodded and explained that though Mr. Crawson had suffered injuries due to an infestation of Glumbumbles, they had treated his bites and toxic levels of melancholy as best they could.

“It’s just as well. It’s too bad he hadn’t eaten Alihotsy-”

A loud bang made him pause as he glanced over his shoulder. “-leaves...” He stared in confusion at the mess of people coming into his ward. Jason turned to them and started to walk. It quickly turned into a job as he saw the look of bewilderment on his mediwitch’s face.

“-gawk! Where’s a spare bed?”

The voice was irritatingly familiar. Jason made it down to them just as she shouted out for a healer, wincing a little as he took in the entire situation. “Helen, bed five, it’s open.” He turned enough to look back at the healers who had also started on their way down to him. “Carl! Replenishing potion and a sedative, now.” He turned back long enough to stare at Miranda for a brief moment before stepping out of her way. “Five is open.” His wand was out and at the ready, suspicion clouding his face as he looked at her.

It was getting harder to hold the man down as staff crowded around them. Miranda’s entire body was forward across the chair, arms tensed as she pulled the wizard back. He had started yelling and reaching forward. The witch would have grabbed her wand to lock his body if she could have spared a hand for it.

When the Healer in Charge arrived, Miranda didn’t need to take her eyes off the patient to know who it was. Most of the higher staff the witch still knew, especially this particular healer. But their history would need to be ignored now that she was once more his superior. However, at this present moment those thoughts were not going through her mind. Instead she was concentrating on holding the wizard before her in his chair as he yelled and fought in agony.

“Five is open.” Marren informed her and Miranda’s eyes shot up to him. Bed five being free at that moment was excellent but she couldn’t exactly guide a wheelchair when she was holding the wizard in it down with all of her strength. Perhaps Elliot was stronger than she looked considering the size of the wizard but it wasn’t going to last long. Whatever the poison was, it was making his delirious.

All of a sudden the wizard turned his head; bit his teeth hard into Miranda’s hand. Miranda let out a yell of pain as teeth sunk into her flesh. With her grip released, the wizard gave an almighty lurch, throwing himself out of the chair towards an approaching healer. The chair flew forwards with the Head Healer’s weight and her knees landed hard on the floor, bleeding hand slamming into the clean tiles.

Everything went to crazy town when Miranda was around. He shouldn’t have been shocked; they should have restrained the man. Hell, why hadn’t Miranda done it? She had a flopping, angry man in a wheelchair and hadn’t thought to restrain him. Why was she even here?!

He took a slow and deep breath before lifting his wand, waiting for her to move out of the way. He could easily subdue the man long enough to force some potions down his throat. Jason barely had time to register the sudden lurch of excitement, however, before he let out his own yell and stumbled a step back.

Danielle was in the way of the man, the other healer who came down to help out. Jason fired a spell, hitting the man back a step. It didn’t seem to do anything but anger the patient more. He snarled and turned his attention to the attacking wizard (Jason). “We need you to-” The man stumbled towards Jason, within an arms reach when Danielle landed a body bind on him. When the body thunked to the floor, Jason moved to his side. Helen and Carl already had the gurney waiting in the hallway.

Once the man was in the bed and restrained further, they moved to room five. Jason stayed and turned to Miranda, brows furrowed in mixed frustration and concern. His staff had the other patient for a moment. Jason leaned down next to Miranda and looked her over. “Can you stand? We can get you into bed eight.” Her bite would have to be looked at; they were on the creature floor, after all, and who knew what was rushing through her blood stream now.

They had to tend to her and the other person she had wheeled in. "At least can you make it to the wheelchair?" He stood and moved to the chair, pushing it up behind her.

The pain throbbing through her hand was intense and she remained where she was for a moment. Getting her bearings. For 3 decades she’d been a healer and this was the second time she’d actually been bitten by a patient. Fortunately the first time they hadn’t broken through the skin. This time the blood flowing from her hand made her feel somewhat unwell. As a healer she wasn’t allowed to have a weak stomach when it came to injuries and bodily fluids. However, when it was her injury and blood it was a different matter.

The noise around her confirmed the wizard had been knocked down and she took in a deep breath. Jason was speaking to her and Miranda ignored his comment about getting her into one of the hospital beds. That was certainly not happening. She used her clean hand to push against the floor and find her feet slowly.

“Of course I don’t need the chair.” Her mutter was quiet as she looked at her throbbing hand. She could see flesh beneath the blood and this sight caused her face to turn a ghostly white. “I’ll sort this.” Her words were slow as the healer tried to concentrate. “You deal with that.” Her left hand pointed in the direction of their hospital’s most recent patient. While pointing, Miranda felt her uninjured hand shaking in the shock. Her fingers immediately curled into a fist and she dropped it.

Jason waited somewhat impatiently behind the chair, leaning easily on the handles as he waited for her. He rolled his eyes at her proclamation. He assessed her from behind, glancing from the mix of blood on the ground and up her robes to the back of her head. He could see her hand, barely, but he waited for her.

“I’ll sort this.”

Eyes narrowed briefly before he leaned to the side, catching a glimpse of her pale face. They were superheros, sure, but there was a point that even she wouldn’t be able to patch up her own hand without passing out once or twice. He glanced briefly to where she shook her hand, resisting the desire to roll his eyes even more. “My healers have it under control.” Jason finally shook his head and pushed the wheelchair forward until it hit her knees.

His hand came up and found her shoulder, steady and unyielding as he pushed her down into the chair. “Feet up.” He rolled her down the hall until they got to the one he was talking about, pushing her into the room. “Stop your protesting, Elliot.” Once in the room, he locked the wheelchair and stepped around, finding the stool and sitting down to face her. “Let’s have a look at it, then.”

Eyes moved briefly over her face and to her necklace before finally he held his wand in one hand and moved to lift her hand with his other. “At least we can patch you up quickly.” He gave her a small smile, eyes darting up to hers.

Before she knew it the chair came into her knees knocking the witch back off her feet and into the chair. A strong hand found her shoulder and stopped her from pushing herself back up. Without a moment’s pause the chair was moving forward and Miranda’s lips parted to protest.
“Marr-” but he interjected and wheeled her into the cubicle leaving Miranda to silently sit, lips pursed tightly as blood dribbled down onto her dress.

Begrudgingly Miranda offered the wizard her hand as he offered her a small smile. It was a well-known fact that healers made for dreadful patients. Why would they accept being part of the sick and injured that they saved? Why would they willingly allow someone to do something to them that they could do themselves? And Miranda Elliot really didn’t like pain. She had an extremely low tolerance for it.

As Marren examined the hand, Elliot glanced over him. She read the papers regularly. She knew what had happened to him months ago. It was true that she’d hadn’t come to see him. His reaction to her return to England back in September had confirmed they were no longer on particularly good term so she hadn’t bothered. He was probably just trying to recover now with his wife and child.

His fingers touched her wound and she was immediately dragged from her thoughts as an expletive shot from her lips and she yanked her hand back.
“Merlin’s balls, Marren! You don’t need to maul it.”

It was almost a pleasing feat, to be able to catch Miranda Elliot off guard. He’d have to triumph over it later. When his ward wasn’t in the throes of whatever she had brought into it. He would have much preferred to lavish over the man three rooms down, but he couldn’t very well pull someone from their work to handle another healer’s mess.

For some reason, it reminded him of Hannah’s omission. He grit his teeth behind his lips and pursed them. He examined her hand anyway, admiring the mess of it that the man had done with his teeth. It looked painful.

He startled slightly from the curse off her lips, glancing up to her before sighing. “It’s already been mauled.” Hands moved over his pockets, finding a vial in one before he pulled it out. Jason dumped the numbing liquid over the area, watching it for a moment before he once again set to checking her hand, pulling the skin one way and then another. “Keep yourself focused on something else.” His wand came up and he gave the area a good cleaning spell.

“What have you been up to?” He fixed the lighting and bent over her hand, starting to mend the skin back together with his wand and steady fingers.

As Miranda tried to focus on something other than the pain, Marren poured a potion over the wound. It seared for a moment, causing her to tense and pull a face. The potion was ironic. She couldn’t help but think the potion as ironic. It was used to numb an area to do work on but it hurt like hell when poured onto the open flesh and Elliot expected Healer Marren quite enjoyed that fact.

“I’ve started a new job.” She stated, her eyes carefully watching the work going on for her hand. While she hated being a patient, it was Miranda that had done a lot of Marren’s training. She had worked a lot with him as he’d built up the ranks and while she would regularly criticise, she knew he did a good job. Yet it didn’t make it any easier when it was someone else’s wand pointed at a wound of hers. He’d have done far better paralysing the offending wizard as soon as he’d kicked off. Then they wouldn’t be here doing this while others tended to the poison victim.

“Things haven’t exactly gone smoothly so far.” Marren had only asked to distract her, Bone Mend knew that. It was, however, evident that he didn’t know why she was there. He didn’t realise it was his new boss’ hand he was patching up. He probably presumed she’d happened upon on the hospital for some sort of visit, bringing the rogue poisoned patient with her.

Her undamaged hand reached over to Marren’s wrist. “Tilt your wand at more of an angle. It will minimise the scaring.”

“Ah.” That was his easiest response to her new job. She definitely seemed to have a hard time staying in once place for very long. Maybe it was her own version of a midlife crisis. Jason smiled, but kept his attention on the wound. It wasn’t every day that he had the opportunity to help mend up an old preceptor and former... fling. Not that he was giving Miranda any special treatment. It was a bit of first aid and a healer’s touch; beyond that, she would need to seek some potions to help with the mend.

He would have to get back in to see what trouble she had brought his ward. “That’s too bad. What are you doing now? Is Durmstrang not the bees knees?” He paused when her hand touched his wrist, glancing briefly up at her as he took her criticism with a smirk. “You don’t want a cool scar to scare children with?” He did as she suggested, however, finally finishing the mending of the skin.

Jason straightened up and grinned, wand slipping back into his pocket. “There you go, Elliot. Decent enough, anyway.” He leaned his hands on his lower thighs, watching her briefly, quietly, assessing. “So what’s the new job?” He stood and moved to the sink, washing his hands under the warm water.

To be honest, his mind was on other things than just what was going on in room eight. He had a dinner date with Layla and would be taking Aidan for the week, so the apartment needed cleaned up. Personal plans aside, he had a few meetings to attend and a ward to keep running. Supplies would need to be reordered, and a formal write up of this incident would need to be pieced together to send up the chain.

The wizard honestly seemed to have no idea that it was his new boss he was patching up. He continued to make his comments and Elliot allowed him to do so, more interested in the dull sensation now in her hand. At least it was better than the terrible pain that had come before. While a very well-practiced healer with three decades of experience, Miranda herself was terrible when it came to handling pain. It was a wonder she hadn’t cried or sworn a large amount more.

Her hand was finished for now and Miranda pulled it back, lifting to analyse the repair job. She couldn’t help but examine the work of others and this was now to become her job. Anything going wrong in the hospital would now be on her. The quality of the healers was her responsibility. Everything was now her responsibility. Miranda’s lips pursed for a moment before she glanced up at Marren who was now washing his hands. She wasn’t sure how he would handle the news about her new job. Perhaps a couple of years ago, it wouldn’t have been awkward. As it was they had indulged in a fling before she’d left the country and now he was doing merlin knew what.

“Well you’ll be calling me Head Healer now, Marren. Or Madam.” The witch’s lips twisted into a smile as she stood. She moved over to the small trolley in the cubicle and found herself a bandage. She sat on the edge of her bed and began to wrap it around her injured hand. This would stop her catching it on anything and making the injury worse until she got home.

“I would say its nice to be back but...” She glanced down at her hand. "I suppose my second bite in..." Miranda stopped for a moment, reconsidering her words, "since I trained isn't too terrible."

After washing his hand, he gently shook them out over the sink before pulling a couple of towels out, wiping each hand with practiced art. He turned towards her, leaning against the counter as he finished drying his fingers, ankle crossing over his other as he relaxed there. The paper towels were balled up before he threw them away, a couple feet away, pulling his eyes back to her after making sure it sunk in the bin.

He blinked as he absorbed her words, face screwing up just slightly. A breath of a laugh escaped him before he cut it off suddenly, frowning, considering. Now it was his turn to assess her while she busied herself. Arms crossed over his chest. “Head Healer... really?” If he sounded surprised... it was because he was. How long had she been gone? Clearly not long enough. And her experience was amazing, of course, on paper. She had managed wards fine, he supposed.

But Head Healer? That meant they were working together again... He winced just slightly before shifting himself, fingers drumming on his arm as he contemplated it all. He raised an eyebrow when she seemed to pause over her years of experience.

Jason cleared his throat and rested his hands on the counter on either side of him, uncrossing his legs. He slowly pushed himself up, standing. “No, I suppose not.” He hadn’t been bitten before, thank Merlin, but he had been tripped up and tackled before. A few times... He had a decent scar from a wrestling match he had had... years ago. While on the Janus Thickey Ward. All those less than savory memories were lessons to be learned from.

He cleared his throat as hands found their way to his trouser pockets. “Well. I’m sure St. Mungo’s is lucky to have you leading it. I will see you soon, yeah? Meeting in a short bit. Maybe after I figure out what you brought us.” He chuckled and shifted a little, thinking to leave. “Do you need anything else, or...”

Jason seemed genuinely surprised about Elliot’s new position at the hospital. He definitely didn’t school his expression well. From the surprise, she couldn’t read the real cause for it. Was it her being back at the hospital, her having actually got the job or him now having to work under her again? Whatever it was left Marren unable to give her congratulations. Instead he told her the hospital was probably lucky and tried to dismiss her. The witch’s lips pursed.

“Do you need anything else, or...”

He was ready to leave. To go and probably deal with the news in his own special way. Miranda decided to tackle the elephant in the room head on. Or at least the elephant she believed was probably there.

“Yes. I was planning on jumping your bones.” Her expression was plain, eyes locking with his as she stood up from the bed. “I can’t resist the tension between us right now.”
When Marren suddenly started to look extremely uncomfortable and opened his mouth to speak, the Head Healer smiled and shook her head.
“Relax, Marren. Your bones are safe.” She removed her wand from her robe pocket and went about cleaning the blood off her dress. “We can move on from last year professionally, yes?”
Suddenly the witch was beside the healer and she briefly rested a hand on his arm. “Your friendship was far more valuable to me.”

And as quickly as Miranda was genuine, she was back to her new role and stepping out of the cubicle.
“He had something in his blood to react with that venom. Probably an energy potion addict. Camomile tea should calm it.”

Jason couldn’t stop the shock that came over his face; she wasn’t often so brash, especially while at work. He blinked and looked her over, his mouth falling open as he considered what to say to her. It definitely wasn’t happening; that boat had sailed and she hadn’t wanted to be on board it anyway. And then it sank and he had to swim to a different boat to try and make it through storms of articles and miscommunication and angry women. From all around.

He had put himself in that situation once. He was sure as hell not putting himself back there. He did close his mouth when she told him to relax, frowning as he tried to roll the tension out of his shoulders. “Of-” He looked down at her hand and then focused on her face, raising an eyebrow as he took her words in and let them sit there for a moment. “-course.”

Whether she was being honest or not, he was willing to let it all go and focus on the present. He wasn’t some heartbroken student pinning after the professor. They had a far more productive working relationship, after all. He nodded to her and accepted her words, whether he knew to trust them or not. Jason watched after her, staying where he was for the moment with his hands pocket deep.

“Thanks.” He was sure his healers were doing a fantastic job, but after a moment, he decided to make sure they were doing alright. He stepped out of the cubicle, turned left, and... and Miranda was heading that way as well. He frowned but followed. Once he stepped in, it was like controlled chaos. He could handle that. He took a slow breath and pulled his wand out. He could imagine she wasn't there. “What have we got, Augustus[1]?" Jason stepped over to the restrained and now potioned-up man, glancing over the wounds.

1.

Augustus

As Miranda left the cubicle, the decision to check on the patient she’d brought into their halls was made and she set out in the direction of the cubicle, heels clicking on the tiled floor. Her knees were sore from landing hard on them minutes before, they would be bruising nicely soon. Her gait was therefore slowed and steady. There was still ample time before the first meeting of the day when she would greet her in charges; most of which she was already well acquainted with. Yet she hadn’t even been to her office yet this morning and very few staff knew about her return and appointment as Head Healer.

Today was to be spent visiting various wards and discussions with healers and charges. She needed to once more get a feeling for the hospital and a holistic understanding of the work being done. As a trainee healer Miranda, or Healer Carter as she had been known, had rotated around the wards in order to find a speciality. But as a healer grew more experienced, they generally settled to a specialism and remained in that area. For her it had been two areas of practice. Creature injuries and spell damage. Therefore the Healer’s understanding of poisons, plants and bugs was limited to her practice as a teenager taking her exams.

Upon entering the cubicle there was a controlled commotion; yet a commotion nonetheless. The patient, no longer body bound, was restrained to the bed and steadily becoming dopey. Miranda remained near the curtain, hands clasped together as she observed silently.

Augustus, in response to his Charge’s query, moved to the head of the bed and pointed out the puncture wound on the man’s collarbone.
“He’s been bitten.” The healer stated. Miranda’s lips pursed, unimpressed as far. “We’ve sent a sample downstairs but that could take hours for them to mix the potion to find out.”

Miranda still remained silent, hoping that least one member of staff in the room would check for obvious clues as to the venom.

”It’s not a normal reaction, Sir.” A witch in emerald robes piped up. Now Miranda looked less unimpressed, her dark eyes falling on the female healer.