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Not for the first time, Amelia wonders if the fish stick place down on 42nd street is still open.
It’s only two blocks from her apartment. It’s just a short walk away. It wasn’t the best place with the best food. It had maybe two tables and everything it served dripped grease all over her fingers. She wasn’t a fan of it.
She remembers the rain. It was a heavy downpour. Her umbrella felt like a wobbly, uncertain shelter above her from the weight of the weather falling on it. She barely made it to the fish stick place without getting soaked. She picked up a basket to go.
Gura was sick. She wanted fish sticks.
What would I want? Amelia wonders. She’s starting to come back to herself. Her thoughts are frazzled. She feels like a wisp of smoke, fading between her hands and flying away. There’s a dull ache on her side. She clutches her cloak tightly against it. What would I want to eat, if I was sick?
She stays hidden. It’s better she stays out of the fight. She’s better at long-range than she is right in the thick of it. She peaks out from behind the rock she’s using as cover.
On an ordinary day, this beach would make a nice date spot. It probably got a lot of sunshine too. She could take Gura and Ina here and they could lounge on towels. It’d feel really nice. She’d wade out into the shallows and watch as her girlfriends swam out to sea. They’d play on waves and she’d take pictures.
She bookmarks it in her head. Something for later. Right now, she’s watching as the tide rises and surges until it’s forming a gaunt maw. The water forms teeth. It’s bearing down on Ina, alone on that beach with eight tentacles swirling around her. From her book, gold light bursts before the water. It barely flinches. It’s lurching down on the priestess.
Gura is there. There’s red bleeding into her hair, dying the snowy white of her hair crimson. It’s not blood, Amelia knows. It’s a worrisome sight.
Don’t go all red.
Gura clashes with the water spirit. It’s a cacophony of gnashing teeth and snarls. A reverberating roar shakes the ground under Amelia’s feet. Amelia loads her pistol and waits. Bullets wouldn’t do much against something incorporeal like this. Ina was their best bet in getting rid of it. Amelia would act as a distraction while Gura held its attention.
She was the strongest of the three of them. It still made Amelia worry.
Careful, Amelia breathes. She watches Gura’s trident as it forces watery teeth from severing her in two. The shark is heaving, all bared teeth and angry red eyes. She’s the only thing standing between the raging ocean and Ina. Stay focused, Gura.
The red was taking up more of her. Amelia grips her gun tighter. An opportunity presents itself when Gura smashes the butt of her trident into the spirit. It reels, the water recoiling and moving out of her range. Amelia doesn’t waste the shot. She fires and smirks as the water recoils again.
Gura is on it. Her shoes meet the water but she doesn’t sink. Amelia can see Ina working overtime on her magic. She's prepping spells left and right while also offering Gura support. The shark takes a running leap and slams her trident down into the spirit. She backflips off it.
“Ina!” Gura howls.
Gold lightning snaps down from the sky. The trident is its lightning rod, a funnel of magic shot directly into the water spirit. For a spiraling moment, the ocean is white. Amelia blinks the spots out of her eyes as the water trembles and bursts. Amelia only has a second to feel satisfaction about that.
The water is forming long, angry shards as it falls. Never has water looked so dangerous. It falls towards the beach. It’s falling towards Ina.
Ina’s tentacles rise to form a dome. Amelia grips her rock as Ina disappears underneath the hailstorm of shards. Instead of splashing against the tentacles, they pierce down, down, down into the dome.
Amelia feels her breath leave her. She waits, watching as the shards lose their form and the water falls onto the tentacles. The ocean has returned to normal, the waves upset as they crash onto the shore but otherwise unpossessed. The silence is aggravating.
Amelia ducks away from her cover and sprints down the sand. The tentacle dome hasn’t moved and that’s setting off alarm bells in her head. She does a sprint around it and can’t find a way inside.
She can’t find Gura either.
“Guys?” She calls. She tries to push the tentacles aside and struggles against the strength of a god. “C’mon, book, let me in.”
The tentacles part before her. She ducks between them, hoping up over one and having to crawl over another until she’s inside the dome.
Amelia stops cold in her tracks.
I am a doctor. She thinks. On sick days, I get my girlfriends fish sticks.
There are two holes in Gura’s back. She’s trembling on all four, breaths leaving her in sharp wheezes. Below her is Ina, her eyes wide, her hands clutching her stomach where two similar holes are. They’re both soaked in ocean water.
They’re turning the sand red.
“Ame,” Ina says wetly, scared. She’s gripping Gura’s arms like a lifeline. Amelia flies to their side. She’s not a moment too soon as Gura loses all the strength in her arms and nearly falls face-first into Ina. Amelia catches her and cradles her, bringing her off the priestess to lay beside her.
The clinical diagnosis runs through her mind. The water shards pierced the dome. She glances up to confirm that and winces at the bleeding tentacles above her. Two must have pierced through. Gura made it into the dome before Ina could close it off. Gura tried to take most of the blow.
Amelia shucks off her coat. Her little first aid kit wasn’t going to have enough for this. She takes out a knife and starts ripping at the sleeves. It’s a focus for her, something to direct her attention from Gura’s shallow breaths and Ina’s wide-eyed silence.
The hole in Gura went through her back. One through her stomach, Amelia frets, and the other through her chest. Her fingers feel numb as she snaps on gloves. She hesitates briefly, horrified at the prospect of having to choose which girlfriend to save. She can see Ina’s injuries aren’t as severe, but there are two holes in her abdomen and they aren’t healing as quickly as her eldritch powers usually let her. Amelia steps between them and sits.
She’ll work with what she has.
Her watch thrums as time falls to a standstill. She can feel the itch under her skin as everything but her freezes. Her heartbeat ticks away, tick by tick, as she works. She alternates. Gura’s stitches first, Ina antiseptic, needle driver needs to be positioned carefully, forceps, scissors, she’s ripping her cloak to absolute shreds- Time lets her get away with this. She leaves no room for mistakes.
Injuries like these require attention. She’s laying out the groundwork in her head as she moves them onto their backs to bring attention to the other half of the injuries. Three weeks bed rest. She needs to change their bandages when she gets home. She wants to do a full checkup when she’s not on a beach with limited supplies.
Her watch thrums. Amelia exhales. Time is numbing her skin. It makes her senses dull and makes her feel less and less until she doesn’t feel at all. She works with that. It helps her focus when her fingers don’t shake and she feels like she has no attachment to this situation.
When she’s done, she moves them onto their backs again. She double-checks her work and only when satisfied does she let time go. Her watch clicks and the ocean sound is back. Her girlfriends breath raggedly, startled. Gura recoils, a half yell escaping her mouth as the pain rears up inside her. Ina remains motionless.
“Easy,” Amelia murmurs. She has pain pills in hand for this. She leans down to cup Gura’s chin. “Take these? It’ll help.”
Gura’s brow is furrowed with pain. She nods shakily. It breaks Amelia’s heart to see the full body tremble that wracks her shark. Gura takes the pills. Amelia turns to do the same with Ina. The priestess has her eyes closed, but she's breathing softly. Amelia imagines she’s working on mending herself.
“Ina.” Amelia coaxes. Eldritch powers or not, medicine still helps. “Pain relief time.”
“Mm.” Ina obligingly parts her lips. Amelia cracks a wry smile. She knows Ina is focused. It’s still cute to gently touch her lips as she feeds her the medicine. The priestess takes it and murmurs, “You’re an angel.”
“I’m not the one with a halo.” Amelia jokes weakly. She’s glad Ina is coherent enough to banter. “How’re you holding up?”
“Give me a few minutes.” Ina exhales. There’s weariness painted in her voice. “I’ll get to Gura.”
“Take-” Gura breathes raggedly, “Take your time. I’m fine.”
“You almost died,” Amelia says.
“You got me,” Gura says.
Amelia doesn’t say anything to that. She tends to them with fretful hands, wiping away sweat from Gura’s brow with the scraps of her cloak. She runs her fingers through Ina’s hair. She offers what comfort she can before she’s helping Ina sit up.
“Okay,” Ina says shakily. “It’s my turn.”
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In the end, Ina heals them both back into pristine condition. Amelia is more than happy to take out the stitches on their behalf. The moment they’re back home she’s shooing them off to clean, the doctor still running in her head.
She’s making her way to go grab the other first aid kit when Ina’s hands gently wind around her shoulders. Amelia smiles dryly.
“Is now really the time to be sexy?” Amelia asks.
Ina doesn’t answer. She’s turning Amelia’s head to face her, her brows furrowed as she reaches up to-
“Are you wiping my nose?”
“You’re bleeding, detective.”
Amelia startles. She rubs her sleeve over her face and blinks down at the smear of red over her shirt. A nosebleed wasn’t uncommon when she time-traveled for too long. The weight of spacetime and its flows was too much for a mortal body, or at least that’s what Kronii says. Amelia feels just fine.
“I might have overdone it.” She admits. She ducks into the bathroom to fetch a washcloth and put it under her nose. “Thanks, Ina. I didn’t notice.”
Ina watches her from the doorway. She looks rumpled and unkempt. Her hair is normally so silky and cared for that to see it messy and coated with grainy sand is a strange look. Amelia starts a bath.
“You guys need to wash up,” Amelia says. She sounds nasally with a cloth shoved in her face. “Get all the blood off you.”
“That sounds nice.” Ina breathes. “Before that…”
Amelia is half listening as she bends over the tub to turn on the water. She tests it with her hand, waiting patiently to find the right temperature. When she’s satisfied, she backs away. Standing too fast makes her dizzy. She sighs.
Ina is back in her space. There's a knowing glint to the blue of her eyes. She’s leaning forward until their noses touch, “Sit down, detective.”
“Yes, mother,” Amelia says. She doesn’t want to sit on the toilet and instead used the rim of the bathtub as her chair. It’s closer to Ina anyway. She likes it when the priestess cups her face like this. Amelia hums, enjoying the sensation of being a pampered cat.
She can feel the tingle of magic along her skin. It’s a massage on all her aches. She relaxes as the dull feelings fade away.
“Miracle touch.” Amelia mumbles.
She can feel Ina’s smile against her neck, “I’m sorry, we worried you.”
“M’h just happy you’re okay.”
Gura appears in the doorway. She’s changed out of her clothes into loose sleepwear. She’s blue again with only a faint ring of red in her eyes. She looks exhausted.
“If we’re cuddling can we do it in bed?” Gura complains. There’s a gravelly note to her voice. “My insides feel like jello.”
“Bath first.” Amelia sets aside the washcloth. She barely has time to stand up before Gura is in front of her and grabbing her face. It’s not as gentle as Ina. With a little bit of force the shark is directing Amelia to look at her. There's a grumpy curl to her lip.
“Why is there blood on your face?”
“Timetravel.” Amelia reaches up to take Gura’s hands into her own. “It takes a lot to freeze the world for a few minutes, ya know?”
Gura looks upset. Amelia doesn’t like that. She kisses Gura’s knuckles gently, “Hey, it’s not your fault.”
“It still-” Gura exhales angrily. “I don’t want to think about it. I just want to cuddle. This day sucks.”
“I can order fish sticks while you’re in the bath.”
“Tempting.” Gura rumbles. She’s tucking her chin into the crook of Amelia’s neck. “But I want cuddles. Bonus points if we do it in the bath.”
Amelia laughs helplessly. Ina is covering her smile with her hand. The amusement radiating off the priestess makes Amelia smile. She runs her fingers through snowy white hair and kisses the top of Gura’s head.
“Alright, fish brain.” She whispers. “Cuddles it is.”
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Amelia leans against Ina. She is more than content to lounge against the priestess like a spoiled cat. Ina has her arms wrapped around her loosely. She’s half dozed as she reclines her head against the tub. The water isn’t too hot, but it’s just warm enough to coax out the exhaustion in the three of them.
Gura is curled under the water. Her fins poke out of the surface, but otherwise, the shark is content to be tangled with her girlfriends legs. Amelia would normally be tempted to mess with her by shoving her with her feet. She feels mindful of their injuries despite not a trace of it remaining. Gura deserved some rest after today.
“Falling asleep?” Ina whispers into her hair.
“If we fall asleep in the tub, we’ll shrivel up and die.” Amelia drawls. She’s not able to keep the yawn out of her words. Ina giggles, a sweet thing in her ear.
“A few more minutes,” Ina says. “And then we can move to the bed.”
“Sounds great.” Amelia exhales. The relief of sleeping and being safe nearly sends her unconscious right then and there. She’s content to turn her nose into Ina’s neck and sigh. “Sounds wonderful.”
Ina is quiet, but Amelia knows she’s smiling.
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