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Caleb gasped as he jolted awake, confusion and fear filling his mind immediately as they always did when they couldn’t find an inn to sleep in.
“Shit-shhh man it’s just me”
Beauregard's whisper didn’t immediately calm him, but it did help to slow the rushing of his pulse. He sat up, squinting in the dark as his eyes adjusted. She was crouched in front of him, hands held up placatingly and expression apologetic. He rubbed his eyes, he had offered to take the last watch and he knew for certain it wasn’t his turn yet.
“What’s wrong?” he mumbled, looking back at Fjords sleeping form as he shifted “is everything okay?”
“Yeah... yeah no it’s totally chill I just need your help with something”
“Beauregard. It is the middle of the night, we should both be sleeping”
“Yeah, no I know, but just like—fuckin’ help me out, it’ll only take a minute”
He sighed, untangling himself from his blankets and standing reluctantly as she gave him a double thumbs up. She led him over to the dying fire, indicating the log they had pulled over to sit on earlier. He sat, curiosity blooming in his mind now that he was no long half asleep, and watched he dig around in Jesters haversack.
“Okay” she sat down in front on him on the ground, her expression going sheepish “Okay. So.”
“ Ja?” he raised an eyebrow, “why are you acting like a guilty child, what did you do?”
“I didn’t!--”
“Shhh!”
“Fuck.”
They sat in silence for a moment, but the only sounds from where their friends slept were Caduceus’s snores. Beauregard sighed, holding out a box that he recognized immediately.
“The med kit?” he felt his brows furrow as he looked her over and saw no sign of injury “what happened?”
“I... okay so I got hit a couple of times in the fight today right”
“Yeah...”
“Okay well most of it was just like, small stuff, so I didn’t want to take healing cause you guys were way worse off”
“Beauregard...”
“Shut up I’m right” she huffed “anyway, turns out one is worse than I thought and I uh... I can’t reach it.”
“So, you want me to... what exactly?”
“Bandage it? Stitch it maybe... I dunno how deep it is but it hurts like a bitch”
They stared at each other for a moment as Caleb thought this through. He could understand not wanting to use up healing magic for something small (he didn’t like that she was admitting to it, but he understood it), and he understood needing help with certain hard to reach places but...
“Why me?”
“Because Jes and Cad both need sleep, and I’d do it for you if you asked” she smirked “’course you wouldn’t need to ask, cause Fjord turns into a mother hen every time you get a fucking scratch but—”
“I will help you if you shut up” he glared half-heartedly as her grin only grew.
“Deal”
The injury in question turned out to be a slash across her back, half hidden by the bottom of her shirt and easily missed. She unwrapped her shirt, comfortable as anything, and he set to work. He summoned up a small globule of light to hover close to her back so that he could see, and sighed.
“It does not look too bad, but it will need cleaning and wrapping” he pulled the supplies out of the kit, laying them on the log next to himself “sit still, it will sting”
“Yeah yeah, hurry up man before I freeze my tits off”
“Lovely” he scoffed, earning a muffled chuckle.
To her credit, Beauregard only winced at the first pass of the disinfectant, managing to sit very still as Caleb wiped it down. He was halfway through apply and numbing balm that Caduceus had made when he finally spoke up.
“You should have asked for healing, we had enough to go around you know”
“We had enough to go around because I didn’t ask” she retorted, and he could have sworn he heard her roll her eyes “you and Jester were in way worse shape than I was, and you’re our emergency getaway”
She tilted her head to eye him over her shoulder, blue eyes pale in the light from his spell.
“It’s all about the group now man, I know you would have done the same thing”
“That is not the point” he sighed “you are an important member of this family Beauregard; we want you safe just as much as you want that for the rest of us”
They sat in silence again as he laid a gauze pad over the wound, handing her the end of the bandage roll so she could help him wrap it. Passing it back and forth a few times they managed to get it secure, he tied the tail end off and started to put the excess away while she re-wrapped her top. He stretched, exhaustion beginning to wash over him again and making his bedroll look very comfortable.
“Cay?”
He looked up, catching her eye as she rubbed at the back of her neck uncomfortably.
“I just—thanks, for helping and like... for caring, or whatever”
He blinked at her for a moment before standing up and laying his hand on her shoulder.
“I meant it. Looking after yourself is important too” he squeezed her shoulder gently, smirking when she returned his eye contact “now please, let me go the fuck to sleep”
She bit back a laugh, shoving him lightly (for her, it still threw him off balance) toward where Fjord had thrown an arm over his abandoned bedroll.
“Yeah yeah, goodnight asshole”
“Goodnight Beauregard”