Hey, Do You Know Anything About Crab Bites? [Active/Closed]

[geekofthegate]

Characters: Daniel Jackson, Kida
Content: After being rescued from the worst three days he's had in Manhatten, Daniel convinces the search party to drop him off at Kida's place as he is reeeally tired of being outside and it's close by. He soon finds out that Kida knows more about healing than just how to use bandages.
Location: Kida's apartment
Time

Comments

[geekofthegate]

Daniel hissed between his teeth reflexively as she pulled the gauze off; some of the blood-soaked parts had dried and stuck to the skin, and as they worked together to get his black undershirt off, he had to bear the discomfort as bits of cloth that had been sunk in by the crab's teeth were tugged loose. But finally, they had both off, and Daniel got a new look at the ugly bite wound.

It was definitely worse that it had been a few days ago; that he could see with a glance. Innumerable small puncture wounds ranged over his shoulder, each burning like fire and seeping blood as if he'd been bitten only an hour ago. The amount of blood both surprised and nauseatied Daniel. He knew enough about wounds to know that this one should have clotted long before now; this was obviously the work of the virus in the wound.

A pang of anxiety hit him as the virus came to mind, and he felt like cursing. There was little a regular person like Kida could do for one of these wounds, and they were the worst. Waiting for one of the magical healers to find out and respond might take time, but he knew he would just have to endure it. He did look forward to seeing them cleaned up properly, at least; there was no way to know if other infections could get into the wounds along with the virus, but he'd prefer not to find out.

"Thank you for you help, Kida," he said again, breathing a little easier now that the constraint of cloth was off of his chest. As he looked himself over, he noted there were innumerable other cuts and bruises, some yellowing already and others freshly purple from that very morning. Still, he'd been worse off. Turning his attention back to his friend, he added regretfully, "I'm afraid you won't be able to do much for the bite wound, but it'll be good to have it cleaned up." A rueful, unhappy smile crossed his face. "Ironic, the worst wound being the one that can't be healed normally. Maybe if I can get in touch with Sora..." He was musing out loud now, letting his tired mind wander a little bit.

[crystalchamber]

With a thoughtful sigh, Kida examined the bite wound. It was bad, but she'd seen worse. She dipped the cloth into the water and began to wipe away the dried blood and the clots. Her touch was firm, and knowing it would be painful, she placed her other hand on his back to steady him. Wiping everything away worsened the bleeding a little, but Daniel was far from bleeding out and this could potentially still wash away infection.

Kida raised a brow at his words, and she was almost ready to comment on her own ability to heal when he mentioned a familiar name. Cocking her head, she asked, "You know of Sora? And be not afraid, your body is strong, it could heal this." She did not know the boy well, but she intended on meeting him one day. Yet by that statement, could the youth heal wounds as well?

That being said, she still wanted to heal this herself. A wound such as this could still become infected easily and it was pointless letting him be vulnerable to additional parasite attacks.

[geekofthegate]

Daniel nodded, doing his best not to wince as she cleaned the sore wound. "Yeah, he...uh, helped a friend of mine." Oops. Wasn't supposed to reveal Sora's healing power. He bit his lip, hoping that she either already knew about it or hadn't understood what he meant. Trust pain to lower one's gaurd when it came to secrets. He kept his voice nonchalant as he covered for himself. "Nice kid, seems to know a lot of people. I thought he might know somebody who knew about these things." Well, that was technically true.

He sighed and let his head fall back against the couch. She obviously hadn't understood what he meant about the wound not healing. "Well, the wound itself wouldn't be so bad, but from what I've heard, only particular people can heal a bite from one of those crab creatures."

[crystalchamber]

Kida missed the implication that Sora could heal. Even so, she still wouldn't have understood the full signifigance of it. "He is a very nice boy, from what I know of him. For his age, he seems very well adapted to the hardships of this place."

Kida paused and a look of pure bewilderment crossed her face. "I do not understand. Why? What must one do to heal a bite such as this?" More importantly, what had she been doing right? She'd successfully healed two bites, one of which was her own quite some time ago.

Though her movements were made to clean the rag in the water, her eyes were on the pendant on the floor. It was slowly sinking in that she had yet another thing to be grateful for from the Mother Crystal.

[geekofthegate]

Daniel nodded, gritting his teeth in a painful grimace when she dabbed the wet cloth against one of the bite holes. "Ye-ah, he's a good kid. Helped out a friend of mine a while back." He was careful not to make any notation about HOW Sora had helped, since that steered into the secretive healing area.

At Kida's question, Daniel's eyes widened in surprise. He sat up a little staighter, studying her with a perplexed expression. "You mean you don't know?"

Shaking his head, he growled at himself for being vague. Obviously she didn't know or she wouldn't be asking. Well, now was a great time to do some Crab Awareness education, then.

"The crabs have some sort of virus in their saliva, and it infects anyone that they bite, without exception. The virus is really nasty, and it has a slow degenerating effect on the victim - fever, soreness, oozing bleeding. I think I'm actually showing advanced signs because I got bit in two places." He waved his hand towards his shoulder and then his leg. "There's no natural cure for it that we know of, and the wound just gets worse and worse. So the only way you can get one of those wounds healed if is someone uses...well, magic." He grinned wryly. "Sounds pretty crazy, doesn't it? I got the details from MacGyver; he and Neville and some of the other Team Science members have been doing some pretty heavy-duty research on those things. That crab we caught helped a lot, or so I'm told."

Another hiss of pain cut him off from further comment, and he collapsed back against the armrest with a groan. It would be reeeeally nice to have one of those Healers here right now; his entire body ached. But at least Kida was kind enough to help him clean them up.

[crystalchamber]

The woman's expression grew grave. Though her understanding of viruses was limited, she understood the connotation of "illness." "Then those that can cure those wounds... They are called Healers, are they not?"

Kida took her glowing crystal in her hand, holding the cord right above the pendant so that it laid on her finger. The following was something she planned to ask anyway, but now that she understood the seriousness of this, until she could consider this further it was even more important for this not to be known. "I need you to keep something a secret. Can you promise this?" Her tone was extremely firm, if not also commanding.

If she was part of a select few... This city was at least as large as her own. Keeping her home safe was her duty and her purpose. Yet how could she keep this ability from others? She pursed her lips.

[geekofthegate]

Daniel stared at her, eyes widened somewhat. The tone in her voice...the sudden apprehension...and...his eyes were drawn to the glowing blue crystal lying in her hand. His eyes cut from the crystal to the look in Kida's eyes, and back to the crystal...

No. Way. There was NO WAY he was that lucky.

Not even daring to hope that she was implying what he thought she was implying, Daniel nodded solemnly and promised. "Of course I'll keep a secret for you. I promise." His eyes narrowed slightly. "You can't possibly mean..."

[crystalchamber]

Judging by the lack of reply to her initial question, Kida guessed she was right.

Kida's reply came not in words, but in action. She came uncomfortably close to him, in part because her own culture's sense of personal space was smaller than America's. The pendant, cool to the touch, was run through the wound's marks before she held it in both hands. As they began to take on a subtle blue glow, she pressed them - hard - against the bite on either side of his shoulder. Kida pressed her lips together in concentration, then left two glowing handprints behind on Daniel's healed shoulder. The soothing glow slowly ebbed away.

She sighed, looking drained as she slouched, but looked back up at Daniel with the same seriousness as before.

[geekofthegate]

When she came close, he didn't react very strongly at all; the people of Abydos had similar reactions to personal space and he was used to accepting it when people showed this inclination. Anyway, his eyes were following the pendant, both suspicious and intrigued.

When she rubbed the pendant into the bite holes, he grimaced a little, but was surprised at how relaxing it felt. Then when she pressed - that got a sharp grunt of pain out of him.

He forgot the pain entirely, though, when his skin started to glow. Daniel stared in slack-jawed silence as Kida's surreal, glowing handprints sank into his skin. In an almost giddy rush, he felt the pain ease away and be replaced with the comfort of healed, whole muscle; the aching and burning and numbness seemed to melt away like dirt in the wash, leaving him feeling better than he could have even imagined feeling a minute ago. The change was so abrupt that he gasped, left partially breathless, his mind not quite sure how to cope with the unfamiliar signals.

After a few more seconds of staring at his healed shoulder, he finally tore his gaze away from the previously wounded area and stared into Kida's face. He couldn't really help it - he just stared at her for a while, still slack-jawed in shock. This was...beyond unexpected.

After what felt like an eternity to him (in reality it was probably less than a minute), he swallowed and stammered, bewildered, "How...you're a Healer? I didn't...I mean, I had no idea..."

Well, SHEESH. This was not the kind of help he had been expecting when he asked to be dropped off at Kida's place. But he sure wasn't going to complain!

(He would pick up on her fatigue eventually, just as soon as his brain started working properly again.)

[crystalchamber]

The queen could not help but smile a bit at Daniel's reaction. She hadn't intended to shock the man.

"Nor did I." Kida closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, releasing it in a long sigh. "I had not known these bites are any different from that of most animals." She hummed a thoughtful note. "Perhaps that is why Giselle and Miwako were so surprised when I 'recovered' in a week from the bite I received."

Straightening, Kida readied her crystal again. "Now, you have yet one more wound, do you not?" She smiled slightly.

((Ooooh, it'll be blatantly obvious in a minute. XD))

[geekofthegate]

Daniel grinned in relief when she mentioned that even she hadn't known about it. "Well, good. That makes me feel less like an idiot," he chuckled.

Oh wow he couldn't even believe how much better he felt. The refreshed feeling in his shoulder was so nice that it almost made him forget about how badly the rest of his body still hurt. But her question brought it back into focus, and he winced again as the pain in his leg demanded that he pay attention to it.

"Yeah," he answered. He was very thankful that the cut was on his LOWER leg, as he really didn't like the idea of taking his pants off. Now that his shoulder was healed (oh man that felt so good), he was able to bend much more easily, and so he repositioned himself so that his leg was on the couch and leaned over to unwind the bandage.

This was easier said than done, actually. He had wrapped the bandage around his pants, and as it came off, trapped blood oozed down his already soaked pantleg and dripped onto the sheet. The wound was visible, but now he had to roll up the pantleg itself. After one or two failed attempts that resulted in a lot of teeth-gritting, he gave an annoyed growl, plucked his bowie knife from its sheath, and ripped open the last bit of material between his leg hem and where the long, jagged tear ended. It wasn't much to cut through, but he still sighed a little regretfully. "Sure hope I can get these fixed." Then he peeled back the BDO material.

The cut actually looked even worse than the fully-fledged tooth marks that had been in his shoulder. A ten-inch-long gash was exposed, the skin around it bright red even without the blood. And the whole thing ached with a firey burn that was renewed in strength upon removal of the dressing, making Daniel wonder how even the sudden healing of his shoulder had distracted him from it.

"This is it," he said through a grimace. "If you're up to it."

[crystalchamber]

Kida breathed a laugh through her nose and shook her head when he compared himself to a fool, making it clear she didn't agree.

Again, thanks to cultural differences, Kida probably would not have cared if Daniel had to remove his pants - provided he was wearing some form of underwear. THEN she would have more than minded, and any following acts would have been a less-than-pleasant spectacle. Thankfully for the sanity of both, this was not the case.

"I can do little for mending cloth. Perhaps you should see Giselle. She can do for fabric what I can do for flesh."

"I am." Even then, Kida's voice still contained a sense of weariness. Just like with Daniel's shoulder wound, she washed the gash as she knelt. This time it was actually more important, since bits of cloth still caught in the wound needed to be removed, or else literally healed into his leg and become a target of infection within a week. She continued on with the process, treating it much like the slash on Larsa's leg and pressing the sides together. At least this wound was not as long, and it could be healed all at once.

Unlike Larsa's wounds, however, these were infected. And it was now she began to realize that simple fact took more of her energy to heal.

The huntress, upon finishing her work, hung her head and propped herself on one arm. Her body shook slightly as if her own weight were too much. After a few seconds, she crumpled to the side. Kida stared blankly ahead, though by a long sigh of exhaustion it was clear she was still conscious. Aside from her breathing, she laid completely still.

[geekofthegate]

Daniel was prepared this time, and he watched the healing process with intense fascination. Seeing the blue glow spread over the wound, sealing it shut seamlessly; feeling the pain dissipate like an exorcized ghost; it was an amazing thing to experience. It was almost a prettier version of how the Ancients healed, only this type was obviously supplimented by the crystal in her hand. He had to ask her what gave the crystal it's healing power, and-

Then Kida slumped over on the floor, run through with exhaustion, and Daniel's curiosity immediately twisted into alarm. Bolting upright (and this time not even noticing the absense of pain) he said in a worried voice, "Kida?" Then she went still. Concern and panic swirled over Daniel's consciousness, and he slid off the couch and onto his knees, lifting the barely-conscious woman's head onto his lap. "Kida, can you hear me? Crap, you didn't say you were tired, why didn't I see..." He muttered this last part to himself, scolding his lack of observation.

Ripping the blood-soaked sheet off the couch, Daniel bent down and gathered her up off the floor, one hand behind her shoulders and the other under her knees. Ignoring the lingering, much less severe pain of his remaining cuts and bruises, Daniel quickly and carefully transferred her onto the couch where he had just lain. Then he rose to his feet and bent over herfeeling her forehead and trying to catch her blank gaze. "Okay, Kida, just relax...you've exhausted yourself, you need to rest. Can you speak?"

He hoped to everything good in the universe that she hadn't done herself permanent damage, or he was going to feel guilty for the rest of his life for bringing this down on her.

[crystalchamber]

At Daniel's first inquiry, she took in a deep breath and sighed a, "Yess," but it was quiet, and she knew it was unlikely to be heard. However, when he had lifted her head into his lap, her eyebrow raised ever so slightly.

This was certainly a disconcerting feeling. Kida felt no pain, nor was she numb. She could feel when Daniel picked up her limp form. And yet, despite all this, her muscles could not respond. Almost all the energy from her body had flowed out through her crystal. Breathing alone seemed to take a little more effort than it should.

"...I can." She closed her eyes a moment, mentally counting the three slow breaths as if she were watching second pass on a clock. Kida opened her eyes after the alloted time. "Is it finished?" She didn't move, but her eyes flickered to Daniel's leg.

[geekofthegate]

Daniel barked a quiet laugh that only spoke of mild disbelief. This woman. "Yeah, you did a great job. So great, in fact, that I think we have to worry about you now." Gratitude and worry intermingled freely on his face. "Thank you, Kida, but you need to rest now. Looks like that healing power of yours wore you out more than you expected." He raised an eyebrow. "At least I HOPE you weren't expecting that, because I'll be a little irked if you did. We could have waited. I wasn't in that much pain."

Standing, he walked into her kitchen to look for anything that he could use to help. He grabbed a cup from the sink and filled it with water, then quickly returned to the couch.

As he walked, he couldn't help but stretch his leg and roll his shoulder, marveling in the sudden health and comfort that had for so long been absent from his limbs. Whatever power Kida had used, it was definitely something amazing! Surely it didn't wear her out this much where she came from, if what he had heard about the muting of magical abilities was true. If that was so, imagine what she was capable of in her home reality!

Lowering himself onto one knee beside the couch, he spoke gently to the prone woman, "Do you want some water? You look alright, hopefully some rest will get you back on your feet soon."

[crystalchamber]

Kida had expected to be exhausted, but she also expected she would be able to still move easily. She avoided answering that out of sheer convenience, softly replying, "But the wounds ...were still severe." She took a deep breath. "The more severe the wound, the more ...I feel drained. ...And apparently parasite bites are ...more difficult still.”

“It will.” Kida grunted softly and arm moved about an inch as she tried fruitlessly to move it underneath her. Looking mildly frustrated, she found herself able to lift her head a little, and that caused her to smile slightly. “Thank you.” She slowly swung the arm laying on her side a the elbow, flexing her fingers. It looked like she was testing to see if she could hold the cup.