32 Recovery

"Alright say 'ah'." The healer looked down at Waze expectantly. Slightly confused, Waze opened her mouth to feel the healer shove a towel in.

"Bite down cause it's gonna hurt, ok?" Amelia rolled up her sleeves and stretched a bit. Waze clenched her teeth on the towel. It couldn't possibly hurt any more than it already did, right? Wrong. Very wrong.

No one had told Waze, or maybe it was common knowledge she had missed out on, but healing was extremely painful. No wonder it wasn't widely used.

Amelia gently pressed her fingers to Waze's foot. Her fingers glowed slightly, and then Waze felt it. It felt like they were on fire, and her foot instinctively flinched back. Amelia frowned at Waze.

"Don't make me tie you down. Just get this over with, ok?" Waze slowly set her ankle back down. 'It'll be over quick', she kept telling herself.

Amelia touched her fingers to Waze's ankle again and the pain started. It was intense, like a burning fire that ached through her foot. Waze tensed all her muscles to attempt to keep her foot still as she crushed the towel in her mouth, gripping hard on the fabric of the couch. It continued for another 30 seconds-ish as Amelia stroked her hands over Waze's foot.

Slowly, the pain faded until it didn't hurt at all. And not that the healing didn't hurt, but Waze's foot didn't hurt at all. Waze examined her intact foot with slight awe, before standing and putting pressure on it. It didn't hurt in the slightest. Amazed, Waze turned to thank Amelia only to see her slouched on the ground sweating slightly.

"Ah... I'm all tuckered out. I'm tapping out for tonight, you can deal with your hand on your own. I'm all done." Amelia tapped the couch twice as she said 'tapping out' as if she were in a wrestling ring.

"Oh! Thank you, Ms... Amelia." Waze looked down at the woman who merely waved Waze away.

"All done, now get outta my house." Waze nodded and ushered Carol, Cassidy, and Josh out who all muttered small thanks. Norris merely nodded in Amelia's direction before following them all out.

Carol had hurriedly wrapped a bandage around Waze's hand, but the blood was starting to seep through now. Waze gripped her hand into a fist, trying to put pressure on the wound. It hurt, yet somehow it felt incomparable to the pain she had just felt on her foot.

"Hey, just wondering, am I the only one who wasn't aware that was going to hurt like hell?" Waze scowled at the others.

"I thought that was sort of well known that healing hurt..." Cassidy trailed off as they climbed into the car. Josh and Carol nodded in agreement, muttering similar words. Waze groaned.

The ride home was relatively silent, Waze and Cassidy slouched against each other.

"Cassidy... was it? Would you like us to drop you off at home?" Carol looked back at the small girl; it was now Josh driving and Carol in the front with the other three in the back. Before Cassidy could say anything, since Waze knew Cassidy probably shouldn't go home looking like this, Waze interjected.

"How about we let her clean up and rest at our place a bit before she goes home?"

"Ok sweetie." Carol's smile contrasted Josh's annoyed frown. He rambled on with some complaints about how Waze shouldn't be getting in those situations and what was she really doing, but Waze tuned it out. Eventually, they arrived at home.

Waze and Cassidy helped themselves to the first aid kit, putting bandaids on small cuts and wiping off the dirt on themselves with damp rags. They eventually settled on the couch with ice packs to rest.

Though they had gotten home a while ago, they were still worn out. They lay for another ten minutes in silence. Carol and Josh had left them alone to rest, and they had dropped Norris off at the tea shop on her way home. Waze decided to address the elephant in the room.

"We're really fucked now, huh?"

Cassidy nodded with an annoyed and upset expression on her face. Seeing Cassidy wasn't going to respond, Waze continued.

"Though we escaped, we put a huge damn target on our back. Not only will Ebony be out for revenge, but two little girls who can take down a group of trained men will sell for a shit ton of money."

"We'll just have to be very careful. Grind some more in training, ask Norris to teach us how to handle big groups like that. I'll have Marco drive us home from now on, I'm sure he won't mind." Cassidy's voice was quiet and raspy, they were both tuckered out.

"You should probably go home," Waze said. Cassidy nodded.

Waze called for her mother, but Josh ended up being the one to take Cassidy home. Waze stayed on the couch and wished Cassidy luck dealing with her parents. Waze was sure Cassidy was going to have her own scolding to deal with at home. After a bit of time, Josh returned and he and Carol came into the room.

"Waze, we should talk." Waze groaned. She'd been expecting this talk for a bit.

"If you really did fight these Ebony guys, how did you make it out? Not that I'm upset you survived, but it's not like you have a powerful ability or know much self defense or anything like that. What are they teaching you at that tea shop?" Carol sat down next to Waze with a concerned look on her face.

"It's a training facility. Norris, the one you met, takes in beat up kids looking to get stronger. We train our abilities and our bodies and that sort of thing, so that we can hold our own in fights like that. It's not dangerous or anything, it's just good stuff to know." Waze frowned and looked away. Carol started to say something, but Josh interrupted.

"So you've been lying to us about where you've been going?! We should take you out of that place immediately, you know that? You shouldn't even be learning stuff like that, I mean what could a cripple like you do anyway?" Josh paused, out of breath before stiffening. Waze gritted her teeth, and Carol looked plain scared.

"So now you're showing your true colors, huh? If you thought of me like that all this time, as just a 'cripple' you should've said it from the start instead of playing all buddy-buddy." Waze scowled and hopped up off the couch. "You know what, I don't even care. Do whatever you want." Waze stormed out of the room, tears forming in her eyes. It wasn't Josh that hurt her. She could care less what he thought.

It was that her mother brought him into the house. It was that her mother kept bringing men like that into the house. It was that her mother didn't seem to care about what Waze thought or felt regarding her boyfriends. It was that her mother chose Josh over Waze.

Waze gritted her teeth as she heard yelling from her living room. She jumped into her bed and rolled under the covers. Adjusting to get comfortable, Waze wrapped herself in the blankets. The tears started to flow. Waze pressed her face into her pillow and sobbed slightly.

Why did she have to deal with this? He body hurt. Her mother and Josh were screaming now. Waze buried deeper into her pillow, sniffling slightly. For now, she'd just sleep. It was all she could do.