(Untitled)

[jill_langston]

When the shaking in her hands started to get worse, Jill pretended not to notice it, she pretended not to pay attention to how things began to shake harder when she picked them up or how papers fluttered from her grip. It was nerves or it was the heat or it was her anxiety and Jill was completely unwilling to admit that it might have something to

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[worse_on_friday]

To say that Gus' head was hurting was an understatement. After his shower, he'd stood and looked in the mirror, gently probed swollen nose and the bruise under his eye. He'd decided that what he really needed was coffee, which had sent him to the kitchen in his boxers and a t-shirt, wet hair pressed back from his forehead.

He walked into the kitchen just in time to see Jill cut herself.

"Put it under the tap!" he said, crossing the kitchen towards her.

[jill_langston]

Without looking at Gus, Jill did what he instructed, moving over to the sink and turning on the cold water, thrusting her hand under the stream. Only then did she look at him, eyes widening slightly at the sight of him.

"Jesus Christ, Gus, what the hell happened to you?" she asked, wincing at the sting of water in the deep cut on her finger. Her luck she'd cut part of it right off.

[worse_on_friday]

"Never mind me," muttered Gus, wincing, and wrapping his fingers gently around Jill's wrist, holding her hand under the tap and turning it under the flow of the water.

"What have you done to yourself?"

[jill_langston]

"The knife slipped," she replied, as if it hadn't been anything else. Because it hadn't been anything else, she wasn't sick. Just a cut.

"What happened to you?" she asked again, looking at his face curiously.

[worse_on_friday]

"A pool cue," said Gus, through gritted teeth. "Twice."

He drew Jill's hand out from under the tap, bending his head to examine her finger.

"At least you didn't cut the tip of your finger off."

[jill_langston]

"Who hit you with a pool cue?" Jill asked, mostly ignoring Gus's inspection of her finger as she could still feel her hands shaking in his grip. "And why?"

[worse_on_friday]

"Some guy I've never seen before in my life," said Gus, picking up a clean dishcloth and pressing it against Jill's finger firmly. "I tried to stop him beating the shit out of the bookshelf. Next time, the books are on their fucking own."

[jill_langston]

"Jesus," Jill said, wincing again and it wasn't clear at that point if she was talking about his face or her finger. For a moment, she tried to steady her hands, but it was pointless and the one Gus was holding continued to shake.

"Are you okay?" she asked, studying the bruises and his nose.

[worse_on_friday]

If Gus noticed the shaking in Jill's hand, he didn't say anything, just held onto her with the dishcloth against her finger.

"I'm sore," he said. "Really fucking sore."

[jill_langston]

"You went to the clinic, right?" she asked, frowning a little as she studied the bruising. Not that she really had any place to talk, because she doubted she'd go to the clinic for her finger.

[worse_on_friday]

"Yes," said Gus. "Mayko made me. You're looking at the proud recipient of a broken nose."

He made a face and then made a soft sound of protest.

[jill_langston]

"Christ," Jill murmured, shaking her head as she continued to look at Gus. "Rough island, apparently."

Rougher than she's thought, what with Gus getting hit in the face and a strange dead bat thing in the caves.

[worse_on_friday]

"Apparently so," said Gus, with a ginger smile, bending his head to look Jill in the face.

"Everything alright?"

[jill_langston]

"Yeah, I'm okay," Jill replied with a faint smile, pressing the towel harder against her finger to stop the bleeding. That wasn't strictly true, but she wasn't sure how willing she was to admit that yet.

"Except for the dead bat thing I had the pleasure of seeing in the caves this past week," she allowed.

[worse_on_friday]

Gus arched an eyebrow.

"A dead bat thing?"

[jill_langston]

With a nod, Jill smiled faintly. "I was trying to see if there was anything in there I could study. Research. A woman showed up covered in blood with some sort of creature at her feet."