"I guess you'll just have to trust me,"

That made the Auror laugh. There was very little trust left in the world and Jack didn’t possess much of it for anyone. He trusted himself and that was pretty much it. Well, and his mother but she didn’t count since that was a trust that would never falter. Gabriel had proved himself to be of a trustworthy nature but that didn’t mean Jack thought he was completely free to relax around him. He was an Auror after all and they were pretty much trained to assume foul play, and though Jack was very trusting in his personal relationships, he was comfortable thinking the worst of everyone else since it had kept him alive thus far. But he did think it was safe to assume Gabriel wouldn’t be turning him into a newt anytime soon.

"Well, that woul make my job a lot easier than, now wouldn't it?”

“Mine too,” he muttered under his breath, not really believing it but thinking right about now, just not having the leg would be a really great alternative.

"Now, is it numb enough? I'm going to start doing a deep cleaning and then I'll get to closing the wound.”

He simply nodded, trying to think of something else like his work or the pub but it didn’t do any good as the man started his assault of cotton balls on his leg. “This will bring the swelling and inflammation down.” He was right in calling the man a quack since as he saw it, it wasn’t doing anything to bring the swelling and inflammation down…Of course he wasn’t exactly looking at what the Healer was doing but based on the now constant stinging feeling in his leg he assumed it wasn’t working and that he was just being tortured. Well…torture with anesthesia.

“And this will help fight off any infection.”

“Jesus,” he snarled, the effect of the potion worse than the pain. He appreciated Gabriel’s play-by-play since it was always better to know than to wonder and panic. The whole thing seemed mildly absurd to the Auror as he sat there now watching the treatments, remembering a time not too long ago when he hadn’t been to a Healer since…well he couldn’t even remember, it had been that long.

“Are you sure this doesn’t hurt?...It should only be stinging a little. Once the smoking stops, then I’ll be able to close it up.”

“I’m fine,” he replied, forcing a smile, narrowed eyes observing his leg and the strange slivers of smoke that emitted from the flesh. He leaned forward a bit and held his denim covered upper thigh with one hand, putting pressure on the outside of the numbed leg to stop the muscle from flexing.

“Any word on your brother?” he asked, trying to distract himself.



This ain't no place for the weary kind.