Angeline couldn’t wipe the sickened grimace off her face as she inspected the dead bodies, which she had just confirmed they were. The gruesome scene was enough to make her feel sick as she walked back to the van and sifted idly through the first aid kit until the others would come back. She decided it worthwhile to familiarise herself with what they had as she waited for an update from the others. An idea occurred to her to sit around and try digging up some of the shrubbery around. It was the only ‘trick’ she knew to patch someone up quickly and if anything happened to anyone she may as well have some on hand. 

After a few quiet moments she noticed Matthew hurry her way, looking rather urgent, she stood up promptly and listened as he panickedly described the situation inside. She grabbed what greenery she had and was about to go before, as an afterthought, she scooped up the actual first aid kit, since it would probably be useful. She ran over to the house and stepped inside, hit with the warm scent of blood for a startling moment, she gathered herself, she was told briefly what room they were in but it wasn’t too hard to decipher the trail of residual blood was where she was supposed to go. For another fleeting moment she wished she had a different magic, one that didn’t send her elbow deep in blood and gore, but she supposed the person who had let all this blood out was probably in a worse situation than herself. She saw Brooks about the house who merely glanced in the direction she was supposed to go, which she followed promptly.

As she burst through the door she saw Ellen kneeling in front of the bloodied man and a sudden wave of calm washed over her as if she knew what to do, which she didn’t, but it looked good to pretend. “Ellen, move-” she ordered, sternly as she stepped forward “-please..” She added in the end, no need to be a dick about things. As she approached her eyes scanned over the bloodied cloth, he was cradling his core so she could be pretty confident that’s where the problem was. She settled herself beside him, somewhere in the back of her mind said she was kneeling in someone else’s blood, a quick flash of nausea struck her but she swallowed hard to try and settle herself. “It’ll be okay, I got you.” She said, almost automatically, though it was hard to tell from her face if she herself believed that, she was too busy concentrating on the task at hand. 

Angeline pulled her sleeves up, placed the shrubbery down on the side for a moment, gently reaching around his clutching hand to tear at the shirt fabric while he maintained pressure around the wound. With a sharp tug she revealed the flesh beneath and could see the blood seeping out from between his fingertips. She instinctively reached to the first aid kit, fingers already slick with blood. Her fingers slipped over the smooth plastic as she took a moment struggling to open it, tearing off some bandage which she used with some water that dribbled over her fingertips onto his core. “Don’t move your hand yet, keep putting pressure on it.” she instructed as she wiped away some of the blood so she could get a better idea where the wounds exactly were. As she mopped up a good amount washing away the worst of the surrounding blood she grabbed a big pack, which she tore open with her teeth, releasing a thick pad of gauze. With her other hand she moved his hand, and took just a second to register where the wound was before pressing the gauze on it, hard. She gently helped the man into a laying down position, gravity should in part keep a little of the blood in if the pulse is weakening. “Ellen-” She summoned the woman “I don’t know how good you are with blood but can you hold this down as hard as you can while I uh… Do my stuff.” She asked, while holding the gauze hard against his gut with both her hands. “Press pretty hard, like… Like lean on him fully if you can.” She looked to the man “This will hurt.” she said, her voice tinged with sadness. 

Ellen was relieved when Angeline stepped in. She came in with the perfect level of authority--making the demands she needed in order to tend to-- this guy, whatever his name was again. Hopefully she would be able to do something to stop the bleeding. The fact that it hadn’t clotted over the last two hours while he sat around in the kitchen wasn’t a great sign. Granted, the fact that he hadn’t bled out over the last two hours meant something as well, but Ellen couldn’t quite put her finger on what. 

He had recalled how a half-dozen guys had attacked the group. He mentioned a rifle but Ellen didn’t have a great grasp of what one weapon did over another, apart from what she had seen in occasional action flicks.  Fortunately, she was usually unperturbed by blood, having seen and experienced a few injuries over the years she spent on fishing vessels. Sure people [i]tried[/i] to be safe, but mistakes happened, especially when people were working quickly, on a wet deck, with wet equipment. 

She hadn’t moved far when Angeline told her to move, and she stepped quickly to the other side when summoned by the medic. “Can I control blood? No. Am I going to pass out? Don’t think so.” Ellen grinned at the woman and pressed hard on the gauze against his gut. 

Instantly, the gauze was soaked. Blood rushed up like a tiny red flood from the wound as his whole body tensed in rigor, through the bandage and up between Ellen’s fingers, and he gave a harsh, agonised scream against closed teeth. In the moment, Ellen withdrew the gauze in shock - just for a second - and she saw a great clot stuck to its underside, pulling away from the wound like glue.

While Angie turned away from the man she bustled together the shrub, tearing off bundles of leaves and branches, trying to separate the foliage from the dirty roots as much as possible. Last thing this guy needed was an infection. As soon as she has a good amount, enough to cover the whole wound she turns back “Okay… This is going to feel and look pretty weird.” she braces both of them for what’s about to happen. She gently placed a hand on Ellen’s arms to move them away from the wound and peeled off the soaked gauze, laying the plant matter over the wound. She laid her bloodied hands over the plant matter and furrowed her brows in concentration. In the tense silence of the room, aside from the man’s pained breathing, the gentle rustling of branches and leaves knitting together into a cohesive ‘border’ sounded from beneath her palms. The sensation can only be described as something burrowing into the edges of the wound, though not in a way that feels stabbing or painful, but in a way that feels as if the branches were just melding into part of the flesh. After a while, as she eventually felt comfortable enough to pull her hands away to check her handiwork, she revealed a complex intertwining of branches and leaves woven together to seal the surface of the wound shut. The blood painted the plant and most of his body red. Angeline slumped back onto her shins and surveyed her handiwork, reaching to the first aid kit and tore off another patch of bandage and wiped up the blood around his stomach, clearing away the worst of it before pulling out a little antiseptic wipe, tearing open the pack and pulling it out. She sighed, it was pitifully small, so she focused the wiping around the new seams of his stomach, the wipe catching a little on the rough surface of the branches. She wiped down her arms and hands as much as she could and pushed herself away from the man, gaining a distinct dehydration headache from all the water she’d used earlier.

As Angeline worked, Ellen felt like she needed something to fill the strange silence, and maybe distract him from the pain. “You know, the last time I was holding a guy down like this, we had some nice mood music going.” She said to the bleeding man. “What about you? Ever have a girl on top of you like this, or two? Why don’t you tell me about it?” She raised her eyebrows suggestively, playfully. Okay, that was probably not the right thing to ask him about, given everything going on. But… at least he would be distracted? 

“Fuck. You’re fuckin’ insane, chick. Fuckin’ insane. That’s… pretty hot.” He forced through gritted teeth. “Two girls at once?” the man added after a moment, with a hollow chuckle. “Yeah, one time. Weird night. I’ll, maybe tell you later. Weird night.”

"You idiot. In trying to get you to talk so you don't pass out." She would have punched him in the shoulder if she had a free hand. But both of hers were holding the blood soaked cloth. She was reminded of when one guy, Kyle, got hurt on the boat during a rainstorm, and all of the water made the bleeding look much worse. The blood was diluted with water and looked super thin. "I dunno. Tell me about Alex, or Nikki, or... How long you've been working with the Underground."

Angeline had hardly been paying attention to the conversation going on while she’d been focused. At the very least she was relieved he was talking “That wasn’t an offer, by the way.” She added, appreciating the lighter mood.