Nemo watched Yavin and the doctor slip out. That couldn't be good. She looked over at Virgil as he spoke to her. She let her shoulders relax. He sounded so much better.

"Yeah, I'll come with you," she said, then got up from the chair to climb up onto the bed with Virgil. She sat cross-legged and leaned against him. Good, he was warm again. When Yavin had suggested she go with Virgil, it had felt like being scooped away to where she didn't want to be. But Virgil asking felt right and she remembered she didn't want to be alone. She still didn't trust it, being passed along in a chain of custody.

'I don't like Yavin.' She almost said it. Instead, she frowned a little.

"Please don't be sorry. Let's never be sorry. Unless you're mad at me, then let me be sorry."

She could see the two holes in his neck. The skin around them clean now. She set her jaw to stop from crying again. "I can't believe this happened." She looked around the room, feeling quite separate from the moment, like she'd been watching it from the outside since she got here.

Athena followed Yavin into the hall and adjusted the roll on her sleeves. Sensing this was not about paperwork and the same as her own thinking, Athena got to her point.

"So what is this, Yavin? Ye said you collected them off the street, they'd been attacked by a vampire," she said, recapping the few words they'd exchanged upon arrival. The boy, Virgil Carstairs, was apparently nineteen - legally an adult, and his parents would be coming. however, Athena had no information about the girl, none that either she or Yavin had offered, other than she wasn't Virgil's sister. And that she looked like a little ghost.

"I don't want that girl leaving til I've had a good look at her, and I need to know who she is. How do you know them? Do you know if anything happened to her? I'm asking you because she doesn't look like she's going to let me."

She didn't need to tell Yavin the risks of unexamined vampire bites.

            "So what is this, Yavin?"

What is this? He had always been prepared to assist Virgil out of messes but it didn't feel like that was the appropriate response to Marrowbone's question. And he didn't like questions anyway, especially ones that were unhelpful to him. Yavin considered the healer as they stood out in the hallway, listening to her queries about Nemo.

"Her name is Nemo and she's a, hm, a friend of Virgil's," he answered plainly, shrugging. "Tells me that they used a needle to get to her, aha, her blood. Checks out." Yav tapped his forehead to indicate he had taken a peek to verify Nemo's statement.

More than a peek, he had seen it through her eyes when he looked through Nemo's mind in Camden Town. But Marrowbone didn't need to know that. "They kicked up some, as you know, some trouble with a vampire. Virgil called me in, I came to help. They won't be filing a report."

That was a presumption on his part. He would be extremely surprised if they wanted to and expected both the kids to play dumb if they were quizzed about the identity of their attacker. Virgil was too embarrassed and Nemo was so under the radar, he would bet good money she had a juvenile record across the pond.

"In fact," Yavin pressed on with a crooked smile, "while I'd never, hm, never ask you to suppress any record of this visit, I would appreciate if you didn't, I mean, didn't bring it up to Miranda's face."

The last thing he needed was Miranda Storm quizzing him about why he'd come to her hospital in the dead of night with two kids, neither of them his own, and a vampire problem.

            "Unless you're mad at me, then let me be sorry."

"I'm not mad at you," he yawned and shook his head, leaning back against her and bringing his arm around Nemo's shoulder. "Promise." They had both been stupid and reckless but Virgil couldn't blame this on her; it was Hooker's doing, jerking them around like toys just because they had walked on his toes.

It felt really really exhausting to think about this. He could feel her eyes on his neck and he wondered if he'd have a scar.

"Hey." Virgil took her hand, gently turning it around so that her palm faced them. "Got us a good story, don't we?" he didn't want her to linger on the memory as part of the present but as part of the future instead - something to refer to when they were feeling better. "Nemo and Virgil and the Missing Cigarette Case."

They got the case back. It could be a symbolic win, he thought, tracing her life line.

Athena laughed at Yavin, a tolerant scoff of one worldly wix to another. One of the things she liked best about her profession were how few grey areas there were compared to the beige on taupe on mousey ash that was the Ministry of Magic. The craft stood separate and older than even the Department of Mysteries and procedures weren't just compulsory, in some cases they were sacred.

He could ask her to do or not whatever he pleased, and see how far that got him. But he had specifically not asked because he was a very agile man. On the surface this case should be simple, but why was it that nothing with Yavin - not even his pajamas - was simple. Athena wasn't fazed, clearly. She knew her responsibility.

She shook her head, not making further comment (at the moment) on his innocent request for privacy from the formidable Healer-in-Charge.

"Nemo who? Parents? Who am I meant to release her to? Little bit can't be more than fifteen."

When it came to grey areas in healing practice, care of minors left little room to maneuver.

Nemo melted under Virgil's arm and could close her eyes now. He wasn't mad at her, he was okay. They both were. If they could just get out of this hospital, shake Yavin, and find the morning, Virgil would be right: it would be a Story.

She smiled. His hand was hot on hers - she must still be cold. Virgil was young, Nemo knew that. He was older than she was but only by a little, just that one half-step up the youthful generational ladder. He'd have been a junior when she was a freshmen. At their age, it made a difference, but tonight she saw them both as the same, he'd been through the worst of it, and still he was being so giving. She didn't know how, but she'd figure out how to return it. Not repay it, but make it matter.

"It would make a good song," she mumbled in agreement.  After a beat, she asked him a question that had been itching at the back of her mind.

"Hey V... what's a sprog?"

Whether or not Marrowbone decided to draw Miranda's discerning eye to tonight's events, he had given it a try. By trying at all he may have hindered his purpose but Yavin could admit to himself that the attempt was also to gauge whether or not the Healer could be persuaded to reconsider loyalties. It paid to have someone on the inside, Someone who didn't mind reporting back on anything unusual Miranda might be doing.

He would try again with Marrowbone some other time, he decided.

           ""Nemo who...meant to release her to... can't be more than fifteen."

"Oh, certainly more than fifteen." Yavin rose his eyebrows in mock censure, while wondering whether Virgil would have tolerated anyone that much younger than himself. "But why, Healer Marrowbone, why would you release her? She isn't, aha, isn't technically in your custody."

His mother had been a healer and Yavin himself had followed in her footsteps before working in Mysteries, though not many knew it. He was old. It had been a long time ago. But you didn't grow up in a hospital without knowledge of a few technicalities.

Marrowbone hadn't touched the girl and there wasn't any paperwork to say she was a patient. Yav didn't want to complicate tonight with whatever Nemo's legal situation might be.

"By the way, I do need to, ah, need to owl Edgar Carstairs," he looked around as if searching for quill and parchment, "to collect your patient and his friend."

It would make a riveting song, thought Virgil, realising only a moment later that he hadn't said so out loud. God he had to get out of here before he fell asleep in the hospital. Why had Yavin even brought him to St.Mungo's? Couldn't they have done the test on nine, or at his house?

The questions crowded his already exhausted head, to which Nemo added another - unexpected - one.

           "Hey V... what's a sprog?"

Virgil frowned for a second, and started giggling. It was a young and boyish giggle, the kind he tried to hide, more full of joy than any Slytherin smirk. "Um," he rubbed his eyes, "I think it's like... child? Little child?" Hooker was probably ancient. Maybe they were children from his point of view.

"She isn't, aha, isn't technically in your custody."

Yavin had a solution disturbingly quickly. Athena clicked her tongue and looked at him sideways, broadcasting her apprehension. He was technically correct. They'd skipped intake. Nemo was no more a patient than Yavin. She trusted him, but he didn't always make it easy.

"We'll see if it stays that way," she said then with a wink and a shrug. Marrowbone was going to have a look at that injection site and if it looked at all bad, paperwork was going to start fluttering. Girl looking the way she did, Athena wouldn't pretend she'd never seen her.

"They'll owl for you up at the front," Athena said and nodded up the corridor. She waited until he was on his way before heading in again. She was glad for the chance to have a few moments alone with Nemo.

Meanwhile, Nemo doubled over and covered her face with her hands. Virgil was giggling and Nemo rolled against him in embarrassment.

"I thought it was a sex thing...!" she moaned through her fingers. "Oh my god.... that whole time I was like, what the hell, dude...!"

She giggled now. The word was just some British-ism she hadn't picked up yet. More relief.

Then the door opened up and the Healer returned alone. Nemo sat up and wiped her face of laughter as Marrowbone came around to the stool again.  Athena smile at the two young wix who now sat together on the bed, both looking much better.

"Yavin tells me your name is Nemo," she said. "And that the vampires took your blood with a needle."

Nemo kept her face stony and gave no affirmation, just a level stare

"Fat lot of fun that must have been, nasty lot. Can you show me, please? I won't touch. Just look." Athena clasped her hands in her lap to show she was serious.

After a moment and a glance at Virgil, Nemo nodded and shrugged off her coat so she could roll up her sleeve. There, in the crook of her arm was a tiny purple pinhole with a small dull bruise.  Nemo poked at it for the Healer.

"Doesn't hurt," Nemo said.

Athena scooted a little closer, but didn't move her hands. The injection point looked perfectly nondescript. She could even smell an antiseptic. Could have been a muggle blooddraw for how mundane it seemed. Athena thought for a minute and then slid away to get another bottle of the tonic. She set it on the bed next to Nemo along with a business card

"Well, my little pincushion, we've got nothing to worry about. If it starts hurting or gets red or anything like that, contact me, yea? Or if you ever have any questions. Anything you need, right? Little nod for me?"

Nemo did nod and even said, "okay."

The Healer's meaning wasn't hard to interpret. She sounded like a thousand school counselors and teachers all intent not to spook her, like the lady cop paired with the dude to be the nice one.

Athena wished she could be more settled, but really, these two were okay and her work was done.

"Yavin's out owling your dad, Virgil. Any last questions for me?"

He didn't think he had it in him to giggle even harder but as soon as Nemo told him that she thought it was a sex thing...

Virgil clutched his sides, pink in the face when the tall healer returned to the room sans Yavin. The sight of her robes sobered him up a little; the laughter had pierced through the veil of his Somniac's Soju and he was able to take a better look at the woman referred to as.... sawbones? No, Marrowbone. Something of her mind had tried to reach his own earlier, he remembered vaguely.

He tried his best to pay attention to the exchange between her and Nemo. Like with his own examination, it seemed careful and to-the-point. Something motherly in the way she handed over the card and tonic. Or more aunt-ly, if Virgil had the kind of aunts who cared.

            "Yavin's out owling your dad, Virgil. Any last questions for me?"

"One," he was slumped forward, trying to think. "Will I have a scar?" As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew it sounded like something a child would ask. He touched his neck, the sensitive skin around the bite marks.

Virgil wasn't sure if he wanted a scar or not. He felt like he wanted to sit down alone in a dark room and think about what scars meant.

"Eh, well, don't pick at it," Healer Marrowbone said quickly when Virgil reach up to touch it. So many of the world's maladies would be absolved or avoided if everyone would just stop picking at it.

"Truthfully, you will, though. Vampire bites always leave a scar. But we've cleansed the site, you're not going to pick at it, and ...." Athena reached around to the table and checked on his blood sample, "... oh, and your blood is not corrupted. I'd put galleons on any scarring being removable."

She couldn't tell if Virgil was the sort to appreciate a scar from something like this - everyone was different. He was a good-looking young man in his own way. Smartly dressed, too. But that didn't mean vanity. Some carried a scar to remember, others to forget. Lucky for him, he'd probably have the option.

From a drawer, Athena withdrew two tri-fold pamphlets. She offered out them out, one to each. They said, So, You've Just Been Bitten by a Vampire: There's a Bright Side.[1]  It had a list of complications to look for, support resources, and bite care all relayed by a fever-dream of a blood droplet mascot. Absolutely terrible pamphlet with a badly-conceived font but all the information was current, and they couldn't get new ones until they ran out of these.

"Ruddy horrible brochure, I know, but there is the contact for filing a report with the Ministry of Magic," she said with a glance up at the door. "Optional, but there if you need it."

She knew that Yavin would be back shortly, but wanted to check in with Nemo one more time.

"And you're alright going with Virgil, Nemo?" she asked again, not hiding a note of concern.

Nemo looked up from folding and stowing her brochure in her pocket, and nodded confidently. She couldn't wait to be gone.

1.	Much better than the companion volume, So You're a Werewolf Now: The Silver Linings.

He had taken his time after sending the owl - chatting to the wizard at the front desk, making some harmless enquiries about other late night cases on the floor that might catch his interest. There was no point in rushing back if they were going to have to wait for Edgar to get here anyway. By the time Yavin returned to the room, he was feeling awake enough to consider going into level nine early instead of returning to bed.

"All, ah, all good?" he asked as the door swung close behind him. "Edgar should be on the way, Virgil."

Both of the kids were on the bed now, looking about as close to a sleepover as you could at St.Mungo's. His charge seemed to have woken up; he either burnt through the liquor or delayed its effects. Or maybe that was the benefit of having a friend with you. Someone to keep you conscious.

            "Nemo's coming with me." Virgil announced without prompting, words broken up by a catlike yawn.

"In capable, hm, capable hands then." Yavin glanced at the pamphlets on the bed and smiled dryly at Athena - she hadn't wasted a moment. "Thank you, um, for your assistance Healer Marrowbone," he meant his words. She had done them a service after all, even if the young ones were too out of it to be courteous about that.

So he was going to have a scar. Virgil didn't know how to feel about that but he already knew that he was going to use an illusion charm to hide it at least for the rest of the month - just to keep people from asking questions or getting worried. They didn't need the additional drama....'tis the season. Why ruin the mood? He dropped his hand from his neck, heeding Marrowbone's advice.

Not wanting to forget himself, he followed Yavin's cue and tried a sleepy smile in her direction.

"Thank you." Virgil would have emanated his gratitude through their minds, if he'd had the energy. Sometimes words were better though. Things meant more when you said them out loud.

Outside the room, he heard footsteps falling further down the corridor. Could that be Edgar already? He was having a hard time measuring the passage of time - it wouldn't, he supposed, take long for his father to apparate to St.Mungo's. Virgil suddenly felt homesick and he squeezed Nemo's hand tightly.

The door opened.