Who: Avis Tremaine and Tomas Booth (back in the day when Sab played Tomas!)
What: Avis got hurt. This seems to happen a lot.
When: April 4, 1978
Where: St. Mungos

Avis only dimly remembered being escorted to St. Mungos by the young man from Diagon Alley. She remembered being covered in blood, remembered other people's screaming ... and then she remembered being on a cot, in a room crowded with other people. The hospital was in overflow and for good reason, and Avis was sitting up in one of the corners with a neck-brace trying to take up as little space as possible while she watched the scene around her with morbid and keen interest.

Mentally, she was analyzing the spells that might have been used to injure the people, looking for commonalities in striking areas. But that was before the stinging pain shuddered up her spine and she stiffened, closing her eyes and allowing a quiet groan since none of the nurses were around to fuss over it.

This peace rally thing, it really wasn't Tomas's cup of tea. He preferred to fight covertly, instead of taking a stand overtly. The morning he woke up, he swore he had a chill down his spine that told him that the rally was a bad idea, that it would attract the wrong attention. And you know what? Like most things regarding his instict, he was dead right.

The second the attacks started, Tomas had managed to take down several of those masked bastards, and save for a long gash on his arm, was lucky enough to remain unscathed. Then the smoke had cleared, and the Aurors briefly gathered to examine their losses and injured, and was he and Katherine the only ones who had noticed that Avis was missing? He had taken off towards St. Mungo's almost immediately, and nearly bit Nurse Tonks' head off regarding where Avis Tremaine was held.

He stormed towards her room, but slowed his pace before he actually entered. What if she was sleeping? He knocked quietly, then peeked in. There she was, looking quite injured, but stable, with a neck brace, and very awake. He let a breath he wasn't even aware he was holding.

Avis, on the other hand, was quite aware that she'd been holding her breath about news on Booth. Poor Nurse Tonks probably thought that she was bloody insane, but when you couldn't do anything except bitch and moan about either yourself of where the people you knew were ...

"Booth." It was a conscious exhale of his name. She scanned him with her eyes - he looked fine, he probably was fine, except for the gash on his arm, and oh - there were at least six other people in the room, but she barely noticed them. Most of them were asleep or comatose, after all.

All sense of propriety and sense automatically left Tomas, and he practically dashed into the room, and wrapped his arms tightly around Avis, while being careful not to touch her neck brace. "Tremaine," he said softly before letting her go, and dropped into the chair next to her bed. "Merlin. What happened?"

He fingered his torn sleeve from his wound. It wasn't as bad as it looked; he had quite literally ran to St. Mungo's with his arm dripping blood, ignoring Katherine's plea to patch it up. In the end, Nurse Tonks had done it quickly while he was badgering her for information. He smiled faintly.

She felt a rather strange lump in her throat when he hugged her, allowing herself to squeeze him just a little before he slipped down into the chair next to her.

"I ... was checking the integrity of the wards, but it was too late. Merlin, if they'd given me a real notice, none of this would have..." She trailed off. That was bollocks and she knew that. "There was a man. He got shot straight-through, and I was trying to hold him ... together, and someone wanted me to ... let go." That at least explained the bruising on her face and her shoulders, her back.

"That bastard," Tomas growled, fighting to control the urge to go back and hunt down the Death Eater who had dared down this to her. "How did you get here?" He edged closer, his chair scraping the ground. His arm, though healed, still ached faintly, and he made a note to check that.

Before she noticed what she was doing, Avis had laid her hand gently on his forearm to check for any residual problems.

We can see how concerned she is about herself. "A ... young man brought me. He knew healer's spells, so I can only assume he's one of them or at least in training." Now that she was sure he was all right, "Tell me that Katherine is fine."

Tomas had to smile when he thought about their friend. Katherine had been considerably injured, a direct blow to her side and barely managed to dodge a severe curse, but luckily, a kind Healer nearby had been able to treat her on the spot. Katherine being Katherine, had been impatient throughout the whole thing, and kept wanting to know where her best friend was.

"Katherine's doing fine," he reassured her. "She got hurt, but a Healer fixed her up. She heard that you had been injured. Expect her to be coming round to visit you anytime now."

Tomas noticed Avis's hand on his arm, and swallowed, sitting still. Still pretending to be nonchalant, he went on: "If I see her anytime, I'll tell her that you're doing well."

Avis was more than a little relieved to hear that Katherine was all right. She ducked her head a little and nodded, rolling up the sleeve of his robe to check on his arm. She knew it would be healed up, but she wanted to make sure they'd done a good job.

"How bad is it? Damage-wise, I mean. They've got to have containment spells on it already or everything's going to escape and there will be nothing to trace..."

"I think everything's under control," Tomas said, nodding his head. Indeed, the Aurors had managed to secure the area, though it had been quite difficult. He was lucky that they had finished a particularly difficult area in lesser time than they had originally planned, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to make it to the hospital to visit Avis.

"I mean, they're still rounding up the injured and taking a head count of everyone and accessing the damage to the area as well," he added. "I mean, I should probably go back and help but..." He trailed off, and locked eyes with her, and suddenly, he lost his train of thought, leaving behind a very long pause.

So smooth.

She'd been paying very close attention to his words right up until he trailed off - he'd been planning to go back to work, but ...?

And then he was watching rather than speaking, and Avis felt her cheeks heat awkwardly. She coughed a little and brought a hand up to the bandage on her forehead (although it didn't hurt in the least), coughing just a little. They hadn't exactly talked about the events after the Ministry Ball. In fact, they'd been rather avoiding each other. Or Avis had been avoiding and Booth hadn't, she still wasn't sure.

Tomas had been currently trying to think of a topic that they could both talk about to cover the awkward current in the air (defense charms? Wards? Azkaban and how many perps they've landed in there?) when Avis started coughing. Instantly concerned, Tomas moved over.

Even her cheeks were getting flushed. Was she getting a fever? Should he call for a nurse? Tomas didn't even notice how overprotective he was getting as he moved closer. "Are you okay?" he asked, concern written all over his face.

When had he gotten so close to her, exactly? She blinked a little and instantly dropped her hand, drawing her head back so that she could at least look at him.

"I ... I'm fine. You weren't talking." And she knew that the best way to distract him was to act like she was in distress. She hadn't expected him to act like that, however.

Tomas Booth never, ever blushed. At least, that's what he told himself, because even when he was a teenager, he couldn't remember himself blushing.

Sadly? He would have to call himself a liar now. "Oh," he said awkwardly. "I was just... I mean, you were coughing, and..." Shut up, shut up!

She couldn't help it. She smiled, ducking her head just a little.

"You were worried about me." Avis leant in a little, meaning to kiss his lips ... and veering at the last minute to kiss his cheek.

Smooth.

Tomas felt his heartbeat quicken instantly, the second Avis's lips touched his cheek. Without thinking, he boldly turned to Avis, leaned in, and corrected Avis's mistake - kissing her gently on the lips.

"That I was," he replied huskily.

And oh, now he was kissing her and it was so easy to fall into it, at least for a few seconds. She drew back a moment later, though, a pleased smile on her face.

"When you were..." she waved a hand, "I was worried too."

Tomas also couldn't hide the pleased smile on his face. He remained close to Avis, wanting very much to continue what they were doing. Hehehe.

"You were?" he asked, trying very much not sound happy, but failing.

"Despite the fact that you manage to act like a right idiot sometimes..." She shook her head. "You're a good Auror. A great Auror."

But there was more to it than that, and her smile made it quite obvious. Of course, they'd have to wait until she was better for serious snogging.

“An idiot?” Tomas couldn’t help but chuckle as he moved his hand to take Avis’s. Something about holding her hand… seemed so natural. If someone had told him six months ago that he would have fallen for Avis Tremaine, he either would’ve laughed or have been quite weirded out. Now?

He leaned closer to her. “You’re really not so bad yourself, Tremaine.”

"Yes, an idiot. Sometimes you just..." She trailed off, leaning her cheek against his shoulder when he settled closer to her.

Avis was still not entirely certain what she saw in Booth, but she was undeniably attracted to him and she ... trusted him, more than that. "I think if you tell Nurse Tonks you'll be escorting me, I might be able to get out of this place."

"You know, I think you're absolutely right." Tomas smirked and nodded. He really couldn't stand seeing Avis in this hospital a second longer. (Though it might have had something to do with his life-long phobia hate with hospitals.)

"All right." She pushed herself up from her chair with just a little bit of effort and then managed a smile for him. As if on cue, Nurse Tonks wandered in to check on the other patients and Avis looked to the woman, explaining the situation.

Hopefully she wasn't swaying, as much as her legs felt suddenly a little weaker than before.

Nurse Andromeda Tonks hadn't been too entirely convinced about her patient's explanation, but then again, she always was a bit posessive of her patients. She looked at Tomas, as he tried not to look too happy. Finally she sighed and nodded her consent. "Just sign here," she said, pushing a piece of parchment to Avis to sign, and she took it back. "Remember, you must..."

As she rattled off the seemingly millions of things that Avis was not supposed to as she was supposed to sit and heal, Tomas shot a grin at Avis. She was free.

Avis couldn't help it. She tried to listen to what the woman was saying, but she was unfortunately distracted by Tomas' grin.

"All right." She signed the paper and then hmm'd along with the rest of what Nurse Tonks said, trying not to move her neck too much.