Aftermath

[Nox]

He wasn't an idiot. If a cab were faster he would have suggested a car, but Nox knew the city and he knew it well enough to know even newbs in the underground with his maps they could get home much faster than if they waded through traffic, and it was warmer in the tunnels to be fair. There was a reason the refugees had liked the tunnels so much.

They could go back, he mused outloud his thoughts to stay awake. It wasn't that anyone cared what he said, just that he kept talking, kept awake while his blood slowly leaked out of his body. Though being warmer now probably wasn't as helpful as the cold had been, but it was what it was.

And when they reached the house Nox was barely keeping his eyes open. But he was. He was staying strong, healing wouldn't work and they'd have used the wrong method to save him. If they had been anywhere than an open alley it might have ben better to bring Liv to him. But it was what it was.

He couldn't feel anything. His skin was probably paler than the snow outside when Liam and the others helped Ricky get him down stairs. Liam looked at Nox with a stern look. "You're an idiot."

Nox leveled a look at him that didn't fit with the music playing in his ear, but it was neither scary nor scarcastic, just not content,nor pained -- more matter of fact than usual. "It's dead and I'm not."

They laid Nox down on the ground, no need to get anything else messed up. "Out of the way." Liv pushed her way through the boys even as they scattered. Liam stayed by his head and looked at Liv, waiting for instruction. He'd done this before, though usually Ashton had been on the other side of his head and Nox was lying there willing and waiting for the blade to crash down in on his body.

It was a moment of panic, of memories flooding his mind and Nox instinctually reached for the power as they took over for that breif moment and Liam's hands were on his shoulders and Liv was pushing him down. Liam moved underneath Nox and craddled his body speaking softly "It's okay. You're safe. I got you."

It didn't calm him exactly but soon the healing touch was flowing through him and he felt what little energy he had left being sapped from his body as the wounds healed. The wound knitting together was strange even after he'd had it done many times over by now. Nox was almost dead -- nearly dead. But not in the not alive sense of the world.

"Still with us Nox?" Liv asked.

Nox nodded and reached across the way and touched Liv's cheek, a smear of blood left as he caressed it. "Thank you. I owe you one."

Liv's hands reached for his and held it in her lap after drawing it away from her face. "I think we still owe you many more. But you need to sleep now." Liv stood up and started barking orders. And Nox tried not to follow the instructions he'd been given but the weight of the healing over took him and he slipped into slumber in Liam's arms.