Are We Even Family? (Invite)

"Of course you don't," Alaska smiled. "Let's just say they know how to persuade people, get them where they want them to be. Simply put, don't play with the fire," she said only, remembering how her deal with Xanthos backfired on her, all those years ago.

Alexis raised an eyebrow slightly, but figured that if anybody knew what they were talking about it would be Alaska. "I'll keep that in mind," the woman said, gently stacking the dishes that she had made while eating. "Hopefully we'll hear back from them soon," she said, "how long has be been unconscious for?" The length of time it had been would make a difference to how he could be helped and she hoped that it wasn't too late. Losing family was never easy, and Alaska had gone without one too long to lose someone now.

"Since the curse broke," Alaska replied, looking out of the window, expecting owl to be back soon. "He had other injuries, but those are healed by now. So healrs think it's some sort of a curse," she explained, sadness in her voice. Michael was the big brother in this family. He ran this business,he did the dirty work, he kept them all together.

Alexis nodded, hoping that she might be able to do something differently than the other healers. She had definitely dealt with a lot of curses during the battle and after, but even before that she had specialized in spell damage and long term ailments. "Do you know what happened to the residents in St Mungo's?" she asked quietly. She preferred not to think of the possible fates of the patients she had attended to daily in the Janus Thickey Ward. But for a moment she thought about them, wondering if they were still there, if they’d been evacuated, or if something much worse had happened to them. Some would have died of old age by now in any instance, but others may still be there.. “So it’s been a while,” she said, “the longer it is the harder it will be to rectify, but if he is still alive now that could be a good sign.”

Alaska looked down, guilt in her face as if she held regrets for not doing anything. "Only the priviledged ones were taken care of. The rest was... left to die," she finally said. "Or that's what I found out," she added just as owl returned. Alaska read the message and smiled a little. "They say yes. Apparently it's not like you can make it any worse," she said.

Alexis nodded sadly, her chest tightening for a moment. The collection of people housed in her ward was varied, but she had adored them all. They had been her patients from her internship when she was seventeen until the day of the war. She had worked in other areas of the hospital, but they were her priority. This was war, though, and she shouldn't have expected anything different. "It's not your fault," Alexis said to the unspoken thoughts, "it would have been hard for anyone to help them, and you were frozen with us for most of the time since the battle." The woman watched Alaska read the note before a dry smile appeared on her lips. "No, I couldn't make it any worse," she agreed as she stood from her seat.

Alaska nodded and taking Alexis' hand, she apparated them both to the private ward in hospital. Michael was lying there, motionless, just as she was used to seeing him past months. He had wedding ring still on his finger, his breaths were shallow. "He used to have everything. Now he is like this," Alaska sighed, sitting next to her brother-in-law.

Alexis kept a sure grip on her niece's hand as the younger woman apparated them both out of the apartment. The place in which they had landed was definitely a hospital, but it wasn't the same as the one she'd spent so many years working in. "Where are we?" she asked, wondering if it was an entirely different hospital or if St Mungo's was just entirely different. Finally her gaze rested on the man who was laying in the lone bed. "A curse, they think?" she asked, her tone shifting very slightly as she slipped into a role that she played so well, "it could be. There are a lot of things that may cause these types of problems." She then looked at Alaska, her expression almost asking permission- asking if she was sure- before she drew her wand.

"St. Mungo's. It's not the same, I know. But what is these days," Alaska replied absent-mindedly. For a girl who knew nothing, but darkness her entire life, she sure still seemed not quite okay with it. "Yeah, curse is their biggest bet. But go ahead. Do whatever you need to do," she smiled weakly.

"Nothing," Alexis the rhetorical question quietly, approaching the bed and her niece. With Alaska's response she gently placed her fingers against the man's wrist, quickly finding his pulse. With her eyes on her wrist watch, she counted in her head. Waving her wand, she conjured a notebook and pen, which started to write as she spoke the findings of her general observations. Of course, this was not something that the other healers would have failed to do, but it was important to know even the most basic things.

"Have their been any noticeable peaks or lows in his state lately, do you know?" she asked Alaska as she held her wand above him. A soft light glowed around the man's head, which she had expected. "Whatever it is caused damage to his head rather then his spine or chest," she said, chewing on her lip in thought.

Alaska observed her aunt doing her work. "Not really. I mean, he was bad when we got him here. But since all other injuries healed, it has just been stable. Sometimes he is like... as if he had bad dream or something. Me and Dahlia think it's some sort of legilimency gone terribly wrong. It just doesn't fit much. I don't think Voldemort had any need to go after him. And who from your side would do this?" she polemized.

Alexis paused, thinking that Alaska may be right. But if the other healers hadn't been able to find it then it may have been more than a simple curse that was doing that. Bringing the tip of her wand to Michael's temple, she began to mutter under her breath, the light from her wand entering the side of his head and spreading throughout. At first the spell didn't pick anything up, but then the tiniest change in the colour of the light said that there was definitely something there.

"Shit," she muttered as another spell revealed a vibrant orange light in place of its usual white, "I think I can help, but there are a lot of things that he'll need." With charm after charm narrowing the cause of Michael's coma, her eyes narrowed. "It's not one of ours," she said, "I can get it out. 'It' being a tiny object attached to his brain stem, acting like a.. I don't even know. But it's designed that on the off chance someone finds it, the removal can cause a lot of problems... He would be fine at first but within an hour he'd begin to haemorrhage, and that's just the beginning. Do you have access to the potion stores here?"

"Well, that all depends on your definition of access. I am good in picking locks," Alaska pointed out casually. Her life before she moved in with Xanthos required a lot of, mostly illegal, techniques to survive.

"Good," Alexis said as she ripped off a sheet of paper from the notebook, "I need all of these. I'll get started with this. It'll be fine for the first hour like I said but I'd like to know that we have everything first." She then returned to Michael's side and pointed the tip of her wand of her wand at his head. She had to concentrate extremely hard to get the object without causing damage to anything else in the man's brain. Once she got it, she smiled softly and watched ad a fine incision appeared at the base of his skull, and a tiny metal thing slipped from it. Placing it on a stainless steel tray, she set to work repairing the damage.

Alaska nodded and disappeared in the empty corridor. It wasn't hard to slip the attention of very few nurses in the building, nor getting into the storage cabinet. Finding all the stuff for Alexis was much harder. It took Alaska good 20 minutes to get all she needed, but as soon as she had it, she was on her way back. "Here, I hope I got everything," she said, catching her breath as she reached Michael's room.

Alexis paused what she was doing, and looked over the items that Alaska had brought back with her. Nodding, she said, "perfect. That will do for now." It took her another half an hour to get as much of the damage as she could repaired, and she knew there would still be quite the road to recovery to go. Standing straight again, she turned to Alaska and said, "if everything went correctly he should wake in the next few minutes." Grabbing the notebook and pen from the air she started to write another list. This time of the ingredients for a potion that would need to be brewed and administered daily for at least a few months, though it wouldn't be needed for at about the next fortnight.

At her aunt's words, Alaska sat down next to Michael, waiting if he wakes up, hope clear in her eyes. His grip suddenly tightened, after what seemed like eternity and Alaska's heart jumped with anticipation. Few seconds later, Michael sat up fast, his eyes wide open, as if he had just woken up from bad nightmare. "Welcome back, big brother," Alaska said happily.

Michael had no idea what just happened, where he was or why. Last thing he remembered was battle. Now he was clearly in a bed. One, that was for sure not his own. And he would know, because no bed was as comfy as his. First voice he heard was Alaska's. That weirdo girl who was about to officialy become member of their little twisted family once she stopped being stubborn little brat. "Alaska. What a surprise," he finally said before his eyes drifted of to the other woman in the room. "Who is she?" he asked, pointing at Alexis.

Alexis took a step back, preparing the potions that her niece had obtained into the correct order. There were a number of them, but they would only be for the first week. Afterwards it would just be the singular, complicated potion. Looking up when she heard movement she saw that Michael had sat up on the bed and she said, "you should be careful. There are still fresh wounds." Picking up the tray she had put the potions on, she approached the pair and said, "I'm Alexis, and I would like it if you could take a sip of each of these in that order."

Michael gave the strange woman unsure look before shooting another one towards Alaska. "She is my aunt. It was her, who got you out of the coma. She is not going to kill you now, when she just spent an hour bringing you back to life," Alaska told him. Michael eyed Alexis once again before silently taking the potions. "So this is how you would look like if you didn't play chameleon all the time, huh?" he asked Alaska with a smirk when he finished. She could only roll her eyes at that. "It's nice to meet you, Alexis," Michael turned his attention back to the new woman, gently placing kiss on her hand. "I suppose thanks are in order from my side," he added with charming smile.

Alexis understood the concern from the man. It was easy enough to tell an injuried person to take some potions and slip poison into one of them. But she had no intention of hurting a relative of her own relative, and if she was going to kill someone it certainly wouldn't be in such a cowardly way. Alexis laughed softly at the comment about how Alaska would look, and she kind of wondered if he was right, but there was no real way to know. "It's nice to meet you as well, Mister Gamp," she replied politely, though she froze when he made contact with her skin. Within a moment, though, she had relaxed her face to show no sign of her discomfort. Offering a smile of her own, she replied, "it was really no problem. I would do anything for Alaska.. and her family."

Michael scanned Alexis once again, checking for any clue who this woman really was. "You are risking quite a lot by being here, don't you?" he asked her finally.

Alexis watched as the man examined her, her gaze flicking to Alaska momentarily as if to ask if something was wrong. When he spoke, she nodded and said, "yes, I suppose I'm risking a lot. But I couldn't not help, could I?" She probably could have not offered, of course, but she didn't think that Alaska needed to lose anyone else. "How are you feeling?" she asked, reaching out and taking his wrist to check his pulse again, "anything seem out of the ordinary?"

"I am alive? I mean, by the looks at your faces guys, that's pretty relevant change. And I've got sort of a giant migraine," Michael replied with hint of sarcasm in his voice. "And you did not have to help, but you still did. Considering Alaska called you her aunt, I assume you are Greengrass. Greengrass and not a death eater, that to me sounds like way too many people are after you right now."

"Yes, it is a great thing, but I can get you something to help with the pain," she said good naturedly, "there is no need for it to hurt if we can help it." She would actually need to send Alaska to get the main medication, as Alexis was not exactly supposed to be there, but that was beside the point. "You're right, of course," she said, "I'm quite certain that the healers would even be rather.. surprised if I left this room. But since I was able to help, it was worth it."

Michael smirked. "Why are the good ones always the bravest?" he asked as if towards Alaska, who considered herself just a coward. "I guess you gotta have a death wish to be on the other side these days," he said finally, not really letting his sister in law speak as he got up facing Alexis.

"I don't know," Alexis said, glancing toward Alaska, who had been fairly quiet. "I guess so," she said, "but that doesn't make it not worth it. I'd rather die than live for long in a place run by that maniac." As he stood, Alexis stepped forward quickly and said, "I don't know if you should be getting up just yet. You've been unconscious for months."

"And yet you just woke up a death eater from the dead," Michael teased her with a grin. "I am fine. I did not forget how to walk yet," he replied but in his two next steps, he slightly stumbled, grabbing Alaska's shoulder. In broken czech, that she managed to learn from staying around the family, she asked him to sit down. He frowned, but at the end listened to her. "You are an interresting woman, Alexis. Though knowing Alaska, I should not be surprised. Can I ask you out for a drink? I owe you one anyway, I believe," he said as he sat down back on the bed.