Blake wiped his cheeks off with his palms. He sat back on his bottom, sniffing and gasping as he tried to regain a steady pace of breathing. His mouth had a strong taste of blood in it, and Blake could now feel that a chunk of his tongue was missing as well as the inside of his cheek. A nauseous feeling overwhelmed him as he realized he must have swallowed the large amount of flesh from his cheek. Putting a hand over his stomach, he heaved again, but nothing came from his mouth except a tiny bit of blood. Closing his eyes as if that would solve everything, he tried to balance his emotions.
Galen’s hands had examined Dee’s shoulders, chest, ribs, hips, legs and ended at the boy’s ankles. Running his thumb in a circle against Dee’s ankle, he looked up at the other to see if the boy was calming down. As he looked at Dee, a wave of guilt overcame the doctor. Bringing his hand back to Dee’s knee, he ran his thumb over that joint as well. He whispered softly, ignoring the fact Julius was right there, “I’m sorry, Dee.” Galen apologized sincerely, his expression showing the guilt that was tormenting him inside, “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
He kept his hand on Dee’s knee for a rather lingering second before breaking his concentration to look towards Julius. This time when he spoke, his voice was in his steady business tone, “He’ll be alright. There will be major bruising around the face, the nerves in his hand are damaged, he’ll be weak from bloodloss for the next day or so. Water and trecles are very important to regain recovery.” Galen glanced at Dee before looking back at Julius, “No over-exerting physical activities for at least two weeks.”
Blake had steadied his crying, breathing heavily. His legs felt numb and when he went to stand up, he swayed from lack of balance. Staying standing, despite swaying now and then, his bloody lips pouted. The boy glanced down at his hands, his palms were covered in Dubhdara’s blood. Bits and chunks of flesh had wedged themselves in his fingernails. A disgusted expression appeared on his face, but at the same time he felt a tad satisfied that he had gotten injuries on the other.
Galen brought his gaze to Dee as the boy asked about Blake. He was curious when he heard such specific worries. Galen, however, recognized those worries immediately. So many families, noble or peasant, had experienced tuberculosis with someone close they knew. It was a nasty illness. He glanced over at Blake. That kid was still standing. He just wouldn’t stop, Galen had no idea where the boy got his stubbornness from. Galen’s wife was stubborn, but she backed down if she had to be courageous or fight. His gaze lingered on Blake. He felt a tad guilty that he didn’t feel more regret for his son, but his thoughts rationalized Blake’s injuries to Blake’s actions. Blake had seemed to request something to happen, and the boy got what he wanted. “He’ll be fine, while there might be minor internal injuries most of the blood came from the inside of his ch…” His words faded out as he looked back at Dee. He remembered the two boy’s ‘footsie’ under the table that he saw. As he regained this memory, he stared at Dee before looking back at Blake. He didn’t say anything on the manner however. Not yet anyways.