#adarlan

I groaned and dragged my feet as I headed back down the hallway I'd just left, an easily avoided mistake forcing me to retrace my steps. After a brutal day of elite guard training, I'd cleaned all my gear and then stupidly left it behind in our common room. Normally, it would've been fine. But I had another round of training early in the morning tomorrow, and I knew I'd be kicking myself if I didn't retrieve my gear and have it ready in my room before then. Avoiding a trip to the common room in the morning would buy me another twenty or thirty minutes of sleep at least.

Still, with all my muscles screaming at me and no stronger desire than to take a nice, hot bath, walking all the way back down to the common room was about the last thing I wanted to do right now.

I shoved open the back door with a grunt, scowling to myself. I got halfway through a heavy sigh and about two steps into the room when I realized none other than Chaol Westfall, Captain of the Royal Guard, was sitting in the middle of the room.

I froze instantly. Captain Westfall had been handling training of an elite core of palace guards, which I'd just been accepted into. The last thing I wanted was for him to see me grumbling and swearing to myself, especially over a foolish mistake I'd made.

All concerns of maintaining a good reputation with the Captain got pushed to the back of my mind, however, when I saw him shift in an attempt to sit up straighter. He'd been almost slumped on one of the benches, and now tried to sit up perfectly straight, but he'd winced and grimaced the minute he'd tried to move. Now, every muscle in his body looked tensed with the effort of keeping him upright with a neutral expression on his face.

"Captain Westfall, are you alright?" I asked, taking a few steps further into the room. He grunted.

"I'm perfectly fine. What are you doing back here? I thought everyone would be practically collapsing into their rooms after training today."

"Uh... hm. I... may have forgotten to bring my gear back to my room with me. I figured it'd be less painful to come back and grab it now, rather than early tomorrow morning."

The captain frowned and took a deep breath like I'd seen him do so many times before giving lengthy corrections to one of us in training, but he grimaced and cut himself off before getting out a single word. I frowned.

"Look, this might not be my place to say, but... you are clearly not fine."

He gave me a stink eye, but the usual bite behind the look was seriously undermined as he slumped against the table again and held his arm, apparently no longer strong enough to maintain his perfect posture.

He grimaced, then looked down to hide his face from me. I huffed a sigh through my nose. Whatever had happened, Captain Westfall clearly needed help, although he didn't seem willing to admit it. As someone who'd spent time training in medicine before ending up in the palace guard, I couldn't just stand by and watch him suffer.

I closed the remaining space between us with confidence, mentally forcing myself into the headspace of someone caring for their patient. There was no room left for my nerves to make me carefully dance around him—he needed help, and that was it.

He leaned back as I sat at the table next to him, obviously favoring one side and trying to hide it, but he was hurt enough that it didn't work.

"What are you doing?" he grunted. I just shook my head.

"Helping you, you're clearly hurt. Come on, what happened?"

I could see the gears turning in the captain's head as he debated how to handle this situation. After a moment, he narrowed his eyes at me and stared so hard I wondered if he was trying to read my mind. I just raised an eyebrow back at him.

"...Your recruitment file did say you studied medicine."

"Yes, I did. So come on, what's wrong?"

He let out a long sigh through his nose, then grimaced again at the end of it, one hand shifting to hold the opposite forearm.

"I... I think I did something to my arm."

I frowned. "When? You seemed fine after training."

He gave me a look that clearly communicated the scoff he was in too much pain to actually give.

"A big part of my job requires not showing weakness or caving to injury unless I have no other choice. You remember the sparring demonstration with Adral?"

"...Yeah. Yeah, he kicked you when you were down. But you rolled over and shot up like nothing happened, then disarmed him and put him on his ass in seconds."

"I think he may have dislocated my shoulder."

I just stared at the captain for a few moments, trying to process what he'd just told me. I shook my head as a scowl rapidly overtook my expression.

"You should've gotten help as soon as it happened! What have you been doing since training ended?"

"Waiting for the room to clear so I could evaluate and handle the injury myself. And that's an interesting tone to take with your captain."

I snorted, rolling my eyes as I shifted to get a better look at the shoulder and arm he'd been using the table to support.

"Please. This tone has nothing to do with the chain of command or respect, and everything to do with the fact that you were planning to just 'handle' a potentially dislocated shoulder alone in a room by yourself."

Captain Westfall huffed, but he didn't seem to have a comeback for that. I reached out to touch his arm as gently as I could, and although he grimaced, he didn't try to pull away.

I took my time carefully examining Captain Westfall, and eventually came to the conclusion that he had in fact dislocated a shoulder. Luckily for him, he didn't seem to have much other damage along with his dislocated shoulder, which would mean an easier fix and a shorter recovery time.

"First order of business, I need to reset your shoulder where it's supposed to go. It's going to hurt, but once it's reset, it'll hurt a whole lot less."

The captain grimaced and braced himself, then took a deep breath and nodded.

"Do what you have to do."

I had Chaol turn around on the bench seat, so that his injured side was away from the table, then braced myself on one knee beside him. I grabbed his bicep with one hand, then placed the other on his forearm as I had him put his hand on my shoulder.

"Alright, shoulders back and chest out, please. Take a deep breath, and focus on relaxing the muscles as much as you can. Just go with the movements here, and trust me to get you taken care of."

The captain nodded once before closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths. As gently as possible, I started moving his upper arm, letting it slide back and forth and gain a bit of momentum. After a few moments, I thought I felt the head of the humerus slip back into position. Captain Westfall let out a big sigh at the same time, and I carefully released his arm with a smile.

"Better?"

"...Much. Much better. Most of the pain is just... gone."

I nodded. "Yeah, but you're not out of the woods yet. Your shoulder's back in place, but you did still completely dislocate it. You're going to need to rest for a few weeks, probably with your arm in a sling, and you're definitely going to need to take a break from training and sparring and whatnot."

"Not an option," he grunted, already shifting on the bench like he was going to stand and get back to his day. I rolled my eyes and continued before he could do anything else.

"If you try to push through this injury for the entire rest of training, you will eventually reach the point where you are literally, physically unable to continue. Long after making your injury much worse. Maybe with lasting consequences. But if you just rest for a little while and take care of your body, you'll be back to kicking all of the recruits in the ass in a few weeks. I may not know you personally very well, but I'm confident you're smart enough to make the right decision here."

He narrowed his eyes at me, but I didn't back down an inch. I was still in doctor mode, so the stare that made every single recruit shake in our boots had absolutely no effect on me. I stared right back. After a few long moments, he sighed.

"Fine. Thank you for your help."

"Sure thing, Captain Westfall. I'm glad you didn't get away with however you were planning to manage this, alone in the common room."

He grumbled a little as I stood, but then cleared his throat.

"It's Chaol."

I paused, then gave him a little smile.

"Alright. Chaol."

"You know... if I'm not able to spar with Adral and the others to humble them when they lose sight of how much they have left to learn... I'm going to need someone else to step in and fill that role."

I scrunched my nose. "Yes, you do. They need their egos checked, for my sake as much as their own."

To my surprised, Chaol smiled.

"I'm glad you agree. Do you think you'd be up to filling the role?"

Not for the first time since I'd walked in here, Chaol said something that made me absolutely freeze in my tracks to process. I blinked a few times, then shook my head and looked at him again.

"Me? I'm the newest one in the training program. Why not..." I racked my brain for a name among our elite group that didn't have an ego problem, but I actually couldn't think of one.

"This is exactly my point." Chaol grunted, groaned, and very carefully didn't move his arm on his injured side as he finally stood, but after a moment's effort, he was face to face with me once more. He gave me a little smile. "You're one of the most skilled in the group and definitely the most humble. The fact that you forgot your gear today aside, I can't think of anyone better to step in."

"You know, if I hadn't forgotten my gear you'd be in a lost worse shape right now-"

Chaol held up his uninjured hand. "Relax. What do you say? Are you willing to take my place sparring for the next few weeks?"

"...Okay. Okay, yes, I am. Why not, right? Aside from the apparent risk of a dislocated shoulder, I guess."

Chaol huffed a laugh. "You are not allowed to dislocate your shoulder until I'm healthy, and that's an order. I don't have a second backup if you go down."

"Deal, as long as I don't have to hear about forgetting about my gear ever again."

Chaol snorted, but shifted like he was going to hold his hand out for a handshake. I gasped at the same time he did, although his was from pain, as he dropped his arm back to his side and held it tightly with his other arm. He took a few deep breaths, then slowly, he straightened back up again, a grimace still on his face.

"This is going to be a long few weeks," he said. I gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Would the painkillers in my emergency medicine kit help at all?"

"...It's worth a try."

I gave Chaol a bigger smile, then nodded my head towards the door.

"Well then, come on. I've got painkillers and supplies for a sling in my room."

Chaol didn't look thrilled about the idea of a sling, but he didn't say anything. All the better. I'd have time on the walk back to my room to prepare my lecture on why the sling was important to wear, even if he wanted to pretend in public that absolutely nothing was wrong.

I started heading for the door, holding it open for Chaol to go ahead. He just stared at me from a few steps away, not moving a muscle except to raise an eyebrow at me.

"...What?"

"...Aren't you for-"

"Fuck! Pretend I didn't say that," I said, rushing away from the door to grab the gear I'd come back down here to get in the first place. Chaol got halfway through a chuckle before cutting off with a groan and glaring at me.

"It hurts to laugh. A lot."

"Well, I don't know what you were laughing at anyway. I didn't forget anything, I was just trying to let you get a head start through the corridors because you're going to be moving so much slower than me. Now come on, quit dilly-dallying."

I could see Chaol fighting a smile as he shook his head and moved to the door I'd opened for him again, this time with my gear bag slung over my shoulder. I fell into step beside him as we walked back through the quiet hallways of the castle together. If someone had told me I'd be in this position with the captain of the royal guard when I'd first come here, I would've laughed in their face. But despite the injury and the forgetting, and the newly elevated potential of injury for me, I was happy with how things had worked out.

Easier for me to say, since I wasn't the one with the dislocated shoulder. But as we walked and eventually started chatting, I got the impression Chaol might have felt the same way.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989 @space-helen @misshale21 @diego42