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dwgmAck!! 600 words this time, and a for Ow! Somewhat graphic h/c. *winces*. Again, from young Anamaria's pov, theme: "Heroism". Many thanks, to my dear ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hereswith for beta reading, editing, and excellent suggestions.
Previous bits...
1. Tortuga
2. Happiness
3. Festive
4. Last Minute
5. Calm
6. Truth
7. Bargain
8. Spook
9. Down
10. Wounds
11. Moon
12. Monsters
13. Beauty
14. Name
15. History
16. Service
17. Advice
18. Captain
19. Awe
20. Cross
21. "You've made a big mistake"
And here's today's...
22. Heroism
~ An Execrable Business, continued...
Ana couldn’t help the shriek that escaped her.
“Ana!” she heard her father shout fearfully.
The man she’d brought down was cursing foully, struggling to rise, and she cried out again as her arm was heedlessly jolted. But then her victim was abruptly removed and subdued with brutal efficiency as her father knelt beside her, his stricken look twisting her heart.
“My little one, what have you done?”
“He did it,” she rasped, beginning to cry, for the shock and pain were terrible, and she knew it would be far worse before it was better. She’d seen bones set before.
Her father scolded gently, worriedly, as he helped her to sit up, “So he did, but this is a high price to pay for your bravery and disobedience. You are too reckless, my heart.”
“Is she hurt?” It was Nell, looking disheveled but more or less recovered, though there was a bruise on the side of her forehead that Ana winced to see.
And then Jack was there, crouching down, concern on his face, in his eyes. “Ana, love, what’ve you done? Saved the day, b’gad, but your arm!”
Ana wanted to tell him it was nothing, just a scratch, for that’s what she’d seen him do when he’d come to them hurt two years back, a dozen stitches in his thigh and never a peep out of him (though the rum had probably helped some). But to her shame, she burst into racking sobs, and couldn’t stop even when Jack sat down, drew her onto his lap and held her, letting her weep into his coat while her father arranged and bound her arm for the journey home.
*
It was both the best and worst night of Ana’s life.
More people came to haul the trussed villains, for they were both alive and relatively unhurt – Jack insisted he’d meant to merely put a furrow in the first man’s scalp with that bullet, and Ana at least believed him, she’d watched him at firearms practice and knew he was a crack shot – but Jack himself carried Ana back to the village, and she savored every second of that in spite of her arm. There was also a litany of admiration and sympathy directed toward her, all the way home and after they arrived, her sisters proclaiming they would never have had the courage to do such a thing and she was the best of them, beyond doubt.
When Jack laid her on the bed and her family began to prop her up with pillows and fuss over her, she thought sure the pirate would take his leave, but he did not, nor did Nell. They stayed with her father and sisters while the doctor was summoned. Her father gave her a nasty dose – Jack laughed at the face she made – but it helped the pain and made her drowsy so that she just sat there, blinking. The doctor arrived and she steeled herself, but he only dosed her a second time and took his time treating Nell, letting the physick do its work.
Ana was very muzzy when it was her turn, but she was aware that Nell and her sisters left the room, that Jack and her father stayed, and that the next few minutes would have been unbearable except for their presence, their kind hands and encouraging words. As it was, even dulled by the drug, the brief, excruciating agony was something she would never forget.
But neither would she forget the relief that followed, and the velvet blackness that rose up to claim her every sense.
TBC…
hereswith for beta reading, editing, and excellent suggestions.Previous bits...
1. Tortuga
2. Happiness
3. Festive
4. Last Minute
5. Calm
6. Truth
7. Bargain
8. Spook
9. Down
10. Wounds
11. Moon
12. Monsters
13. Beauty
14. Name
15. History
16. Service
17. Advice
18. Captain
19. Awe
20. Cross
21. "You've made a big mistake"
And here's today's...
22. Heroism
~ An Execrable Business, continued...
Ana couldn’t help the shriek that escaped her.
“Ana!” she heard her father shout fearfully.
The man she’d brought down was cursing foully, struggling to rise, and she cried out again as her arm was heedlessly jolted. But then her victim was abruptly removed and subdued with brutal efficiency as her father knelt beside her, his stricken look twisting her heart.
“My little one, what have you done?”
“He did it,” she rasped, beginning to cry, for the shock and pain were terrible, and she knew it would be far worse before it was better. She’d seen bones set before.
Her father scolded gently, worriedly, as he helped her to sit up, “So he did, but this is a high price to pay for your bravery and disobedience. You are too reckless, my heart.”
“Is she hurt?” It was Nell, looking disheveled but more or less recovered, though there was a bruise on the side of her forehead that Ana winced to see.
And then Jack was there, crouching down, concern on his face, in his eyes. “Ana, love, what’ve you done? Saved the day, b’gad, but your arm!”
Ana wanted to tell him it was nothing, just a scratch, for that’s what she’d seen him do when he’d come to them hurt two years back, a dozen stitches in his thigh and never a peep out of him (though the rum had probably helped some). But to her shame, she burst into racking sobs, and couldn’t stop even when Jack sat down, drew her onto his lap and held her, letting her weep into his coat while her father arranged and bound her arm for the journey home.
*
It was both the best and worst night of Ana’s life.
More people came to haul the trussed villains, for they were both alive and relatively unhurt – Jack insisted he’d meant to merely put a furrow in the first man’s scalp with that bullet, and Ana at least believed him, she’d watched him at firearms practice and knew he was a crack shot – but Jack himself carried Ana back to the village, and she savored every second of that in spite of her arm. There was also a litany of admiration and sympathy directed toward her, all the way home and after they arrived, her sisters proclaiming they would never have had the courage to do such a thing and she was the best of them, beyond doubt.
When Jack laid her on the bed and her family began to prop her up with pillows and fuss over her, she thought sure the pirate would take his leave, but he did not, nor did Nell. They stayed with her father and sisters while the doctor was summoned. Her father gave her a nasty dose – Jack laughed at the face she made – but it helped the pain and made her drowsy so that she just sat there, blinking. The doctor arrived and she steeled herself, but he only dosed her a second time and took his time treating Nell, letting the physick do its work.
Ana was very muzzy when it was her turn, but she was aware that Nell and her sisters left the room, that Jack and her father stayed, and that the next few minutes would have been unbearable except for their presence, their kind hands and encouraging words. As it was, even dulled by the drug, the brief, excruciating agony was something she would never forget.
But neither would she forget the relief that followed, and the velvet blackness that rose up to claim her every sense.
TBC…
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:10 am (UTC)Fortunately, Jack has good instincts. Gotta say, it would be worth breaking an arm for, if that's the kind of attention one can look forward to.
Jack does seem bigger than life, but then this is through a young girl's adulating eyes.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:16 am (UTC)Precisely. Neither she, nor Nell, sees the whole man, which is why she was angry enough to almost let him hang, eventually.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:46 am (UTC)We all tend to onlys see what we want to see, especially in our heroes, a malady that seems stronger with youth.
Just glad she had second-thoughts, whenever said close-call arrives.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 04:51 am (UTC)