#mattywrites

Matty quickly recognized the voice as her work partner, Andrew. They were still relatively new partners as Andrew was in his last year of the Auror training program; therefore, he was allowed to be paired up with a working Auror as a trainee, and Matty was chosen to be his trainer. It was a relief to hear his voice and not the voice of some unknown criminal.

She looked over at Andrew, letting out a sigh of relief. “Sweet Merlin,” she muttered, falling back onto the firm pillows. Her head was pounding, indicating that she probably had sustained some sort of injury during the ambush. “Are we in the hospital wing?” She asked, still unsure if she should trust her own deductions of her location.

Andrew nodded. “Yep, you got hit pretty hard out there, Ambrose.” He spoke, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed.

“What happened, exactly? I feel like I’ve been run over by a train.” Matty groaned, holding her head with one of her hands. “I hardly remember anything.”

Andrew pursed his lips. “That’s what they were afraid of; you sustained a pretty decent head injury.” He spoke. “We were ambushed while doing our usual rounds in Carmen; it was just a few guys, but they caught us off guard and got you quickly enough to take you down. I had to deal with the rest of them.”

As Andrew described the attack, Matty’s memory slowly began to return to her. She remembered seeing some suspicious movement and moving to investigate it, but she didn’t remember much after that. “Ironic, a trainer leaving her rookie to finish the job.” She huffed, partially upset at herself that she had let that happen. Her reaction time was usually flawless as she spent countless hours working on it, but today it seemed she was out of it.

Andrew chuckled. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. I can’t count the number of times you’ve saved me ever since I got out in the force. I’m surprised you haven’t dropped me as your trainee yet.” He said, trying to find some humor in his failure.

“That’s not the point, Miller. I’m the trainer; I should’ve been able to handle it. Under no circumstances am I supposed to leave you alone on a mission.” Matty sighed, shaking her head. She was upset at herself for leaving him alone in such a condition as she felt like she wasn’t living up to her duty as a trainer.

“First of all, it hypothetically wasn’t a mission. Second, I don’t think that rule applies if you’re unconscious.” Andrew said, standing up. “The important thing is I’m alive and you’re alive. And I don’t mind some hands-on moments of pressure.” He spoke in a humorous tone.

Matty rolled her eyes, but she was happy that he could at least find some humor in the situation. “I’m going to get the nurse; don’t go anywhere.” Andrew said, walking out of the room.

Matty waited for a few minutes before the nurse came in. Throughout the process, she learned that she had indeed sustained a head injury. Through the story Andrew had told, as well as a few of the witnesses of what had happened, she had just barely escaped a Bombarda to the head, but the blowback from the blast was enough to send her barreling to the ground, and that’s when she sustained her injury.

“Just be lucky you were quick enough to miss the initial blast; I’ve known some who haven’t been as fortunate.” The nurse told her as she treated her.

Once they had confirmed that she could move, her senses were working okay, and that she could remember enough about what happened, they told her she should be fine to go home but that she shouldn’t come in to work for the next few days so she could recover. After the initial treatment, it was nothing a Wiggenweld every other hour couldn’t soothe.

The nurse also informed her that they had already gotten out an owl to Sebastian about everything that had happened. Due to the risky chances of the job, every day that Matty clocked in to work, she wrote where Sebastian was working that day on a piece of paper and left it there just in case anything happened; they would know where to send the owl to get the information out to him. Every day, Sebastian hoped that he would never get an owl from the Auror Department about her, but today was one of those days. Fortunately, she was alive, but the letter didn’t detail anything about the injuries, just that she was and that she was in the hospital wing.

Sebastian was working a job a bit further away than usual, so the emergency owl had reached him at a later time. But the moment it had reached him, and he read the contents within it, he freaked out. Immediately, he left work. He was going to get home, change, and immediately get over to the ministry to see her.

So, Matty was sent home with orders not to return to work. She was sore with a slight headache from the injury, but it was nothing she couldn’t manage. When she got home, she dropped her coat off at the door and walked upstairs, just wanting to get unready and pass out in bed for a while to sleep off the pain.

Sebastian was already almost home by the time she had gotten back, and he was in a rush to get changed out of his work clothes and go over to the Hospital Wing at the Ministry. He rushed inside, missing the sight of her Auror coat thrown beside the door, and went straight upstairs to get changed.

But as he opened the door, Sebastian was met with the sight of Matty, sitting on the bed with no visible injuries save some cuts and bruises on her arms, about to take down her hair and rest. The biggest breath of relief left his mouth as he rushed forward to take his wife into his arms. “Matty! Oh, you scared the life out of me!” he exclaimed, taking her into his arms tightly.

Matty was so exhausted that she hardly registered what had happened for a moment. But she quickly wrapped her arms around him, letting out a shaky breath. “I’m fine; I promise I’m okay.” She whispered reassuringly.

Sebastian shifted so that she was sitting on his lap, his arms around her waist and her arms around his shoulders. Sebastian buried his head into her shoulder, wanting to convince himself that she was really there and was really okay. “What happened out there?” He asked quietly, raising his head from her shoulder for a moment.

“Apparently we were ambushed.” Matty replied. “Andrew and I were doing our regular rounds around the Carmen hamlet, and I was attacked. I just barely missed a Bombarda to the head, but the blowback was enough to send me to the ground, and apparently I had hit my head and gone unconscious. Andrew luckily got the upper hand on them and took care of things.”

Sebastian knew it was her job, and he knew these were all things that were likely to happen, but he couldn’t help but feel angry and worried. He was angry at those pricks for what they had done, and he was worried about the well-being of his wife. Every day he was worried that something would happen to her, and she wouldn’t come back.

“Are you hurt anywhere?” he asked.

“Besides some cuts and bruises, they told me I got an injury on my head, but it was nothing serious, I promise.” She reassured him. “You can check it out later when I’m not on the verge of falling asleep.”

“Are you sure?”

“I promise. They said it was nothing Wiggenweld can’t soothe. I’m off work for the next few days to make sure I can recover before going back in.” She replied. But there was a beat of silence between the both of them, almost as if Sebastian was still unsure.

Matty tightened her arms around him at the sound of the silence. “I’m okay, I promise.” She whispered reassuringly. “I would fight anything to make sure I came home to you; I swear that much to you.”

Sebastian let out a shaky sigh. “I’ve never been more scared in my life.” He admitted. “They never specified what happened to you; I really did think I might have lost you for a minute there.”

“It’ll take a lot more than that to get rid of me, sweetheart.” Matty chuckled, trying to uplift the mood.

Sebastian buried his head into the crook of her neck again, unwilling to let go. There was a beat of silence between them before he broke it. “Can we just stay like this for a while, please?” He asked softly, his voice slightly muffled by the fabric of her clothes.