Who: Sebastian and Mackenzie Goldstein
What: she finds him half dead!
Where: Mungo's
When: fluid time


This was just horrible.

There had never been so many people squeezed into one ward at, and Mackenzie had been pulled from Artifacts (with reason, how important were cursed teapots in comparison to the aftermath effects of an earthquake?) to attend to any and everyone that walked, groaned or was pushed through the doors of her floor. A floor she hadn't left in what felt like days, because said flow hadn't stopped yet. With no true way in telling how long she had actually be been at Mungo's, it was nearly impossible to contact outside her ward leaving touching base with the outside world effectively unachievable.

That, plus, she still hadn't heard a word from or about Sebastian. Anthony she at least knew was safe with Graciela--- who, by the way, would be thrilled once Mackenzie had the time to shoot an owl letting her know Alex was alright, she had just finished healing him up--- but. Her son hadn't exactly been in the middle of Diagon when this whole thing started. Surely, if Sebastian passed through here someone would inform her...

Shaking her head, Mackenzie blinked quickly to bring herself back to reality. Focus on the people in front of her now, and as soon as someone implied she take a break, then would be the time to go into a distressful crazed fit over her husband's fate.

At least it was a plan.

Taking a deep breath, Mackenzie marched herself down the hall, hands covering her face in a vain attempt to revive herself. It was only by chance that her hands dropped at the same time she passed a lone figure leaning against the wall---

"Sebastian!"

Fucking Christopher. Really! Sebastian had not done one damn thing to provoke a crazed act of violence on the man, but there they went! Down some bloody dark alleyway in the middle of the madness, Christopher literally trying to kill him for no reason. Maybe the rumors circling around the Order were right; it must have been a death eater provoked attack. But why did Christopher look like such a wreck before he started to randomly send hexes at Sebastian, hoping to end his life? Surely a death eater like himself (Sebastian had always assumed, but now he was sure) would be aware of the events and stay the hell out of London?

Nothing was making much sense right now. Sebastian took in a deep, shaky breath, holding his arm around his chest. He hadn't been injured in the quake, save for a few elbows to the gut from people rushing out of the Prophet, which he'd been very thankful for. Maybe he should've been knocked unconscious by a falling lamp or something, because that would have been less painful than what Christopher had managed to do to him. The healers had taken particular attention to him because of his strangely hex-like injuries, but once they were sure blood wasn't pouring out of him from any hidden gashes, they gave him a tiny vial of pepper-up potion and hurried off. Sebastian understood, of course, he wasn't in fatal condition; they should spend their time on those who really needed the help.

But fuck would he have liked a bed right now. He really should not have given his seat away to that woman.

Blinking rapidly as he lifted his head to look down the corridor of the chaos of St. Mungo's, Sebastian's heart thudded up his throat at the sight of Mackenzie. All he wanted to do was shout her name and embrace her, but all Sebastian could do was lurch forward once she noticed him, and croak wearily, "Mack!"

How had this-- had he--- was this--- how was this happening?

Mackenzie blinked quickly, caught in an uneasy state of wanting to pull him so close to her it would hurt, and being afraid to touch him in case it did. A billion questions blazed through her mind, each one demanding to be answered before the previous, but she found that all she muster was holding back tears of relief. He wasn't dead, Sebastian was here and--- relatively speaking, fine, which was good enough for her at that point, since he wasn't passed out on the ground or creating a pool of blood.

"What--- what happened?" she asked in a quieter tone than she had been speaking in all day. Without thinking, and desperate for physical confirmation that it was truly him, Mackenzie reached up to Sebastian's face to hold it briefly. Her hands dropped as quickly as she had held them up, instead going to pull her wand out of her pocket.

He was favoring his arm, so she should start there first--- but vital organs were much more important than a broken arm, so Mackenzie's hands twitched to lift up his shirt and examine his stomach and chest--- but that didn't all matter if he couldn't stand up straight, he needed sit down, so a chair, he needed a chair! All of Mackenzie's training went completely out the window as she fumbled where she stood, unable to focus long enough to get anywhere. She couldn't even tell what was wrong with him besides the fact that he looked like he had just died and come back from the grave.

"What--- what hurts the most?" Mackenzie managed, trying desperately to hold back tears. How unprofessional.

"I already got checked out," he quasi-lied. A healer had looked him over, they had determined he wasn't dying, so there was no need for Mackenzie to panic about his current health situation. He would rather like her to pay him some healing attention, but it pained him more to see her so panic-stricken at his appearance.

No, that was a lie, his ribs really, really hurt, but it still upset him to see that look on Mackenzie's face. "I'm just really, really sore."

Sebastian forced a smile before his eyes cast down the corridor again. All he really wanted to do was go home, but sitting in a chair would be a good start because he wasn't sure if he'd manage to splinch himself or not. And the floo network would be a mess, ignoring the fact that Sebastian would probably end up throwing up all the organs Christopher probably loosened up inside of him. Oh. Shit. He did not look like he'd just had some concrete fall on him, like most of the mess at the Prophet. He had injuries consistent from punching and hitting, with a few hexes thrown in between, and he was sure that Mackenzie would be able to identify. No, no, definitely did not need his wife wondering why he was getting into a fight in the middle of an earthquake, especially when Sebastian was sure that if the conversation did come up, he wouldn't be able to lie about his assailant being her brother.

Even though he really really wanted to. Now that Sebastian was sure of Christopher's agenda, he wanted to find some sort of evidence to use on him and get him arrested and sent to Azkaban, but what? What the hell could you find on an auror to prove that he was a bloody death eater? Did not make the slightest bit of sense, and Sebastian sighed, "Can we sit?"

"What did they give you?" Mackenzie questioned, glancing swiftly down at his blurry hands. If what the other Healers had given him wasn't so extreme, then that fact alone would calm her down immensely. Her hands reached down to his clenched ones, but before she looked to see if anything was in them, the realization that Sebastian really needed to sit down hit her like a hippogriff.

How long had he been standing here! It was important--- water too, but--- a chair, yes, or a bed, though that would be impossible, or even a stool for crying out loud! Anything to get Sebastian off his feet!

Mackenzie brushed her face quickly, pushing her fingers into the edges of her eyes as she took deep breaths, hoping it would help her think more clearly. Where could there possibly be an extra seat, hidden away in this place? An office, maybe, but that would mean leaving him again, not to mention rolling it out onto the floor--- whether it was sheer luck, or her eyes were finally producing things that weren't actually there, Mackenzie randomly noticed an empty stool not a hand's length away from them. Mirage or not, she was going to go with it.

"Let me see," she asked as soon as they had managed to sit him down: a feat that made her cringe more than he did. It wasn't that she didn't trust her fellow Healers to diagnose Sebastian correctly, just that... it would make her feel better seeing whatever injuries he had for herself. Mackenzie looked down at him as she bent over, engrossed, with her wand in hand. Even if it was to summon the exact same potion someone else had already given him.

It felt so good to be off his feet. Sebastian grinned at Mackenzie for magically finding the stool (had she conjured it? He felt like he couldn't pay much attention). He felt like just leaning into her and letting Mackenzie hold him until he fell asleep, but that wouldn't be happening for a while. He'd really rather like that, actually, and his body drooped toward hers involuntarily.

"Pepper-up, I think," he said with a roll of his eyes that took a little more effort than it should've. Sebastian shut his eyes and tried to push closer to his wife, because that was making him feel better. Mackenzie was warm, and she was close; they should just stay like this, he'd be happy like this. He'd be happy if his body wasn't throbbing with pain, but he was happy like this, too. "Because, I wasn't---you know, dying, or anything."

There were probably better potions for him to have taken, and the pepper-up had been a while ago. Or at least, it felt like a while ago. The affects of it had worn off, that was for sure, and now Sebastian was sure he could fall asleep right here, sitting up and against his wife, just like this. Tired, tired, very tired, and he groggily lifted his head up to look at Mackenzie, "Can we go home?"

He was not fine! People that were fine did not act like this! People that were fine did not just randomly nod off, people that were fine did not need help sitting up and--- Sebastian was not fine! It wasn't fine that he was downplaying whatever what was wrong with him (why, again, had she waited so long to actually look him over? She knew better than that, especially with him) and this was ridiculous! It was Mungo's for bloody sake, there was nothing wrong with saying that there was something wrong with you!

Now that she completely didn't believe anything that came out of his mouth (how would he know he wasn't dying! He was not the professional here!), Mackenzie had no problem not asking again: she simply pushed Sebastian off her and propped him up against the wall. It only took a few seconds for her to roll up his shirt once she mended his broken arm with a quick "episkey", but once she did, her jaw dropped.

"Sebastian!" His entire lower abdomen was a dark shade of purple. How--- what--- Mackenzie didn't let herself try to think about how he could have gotten injuries like that, and simply twirled her want to summon a few potion vials from the end of the ward. They hover quietly above her head as she grabbed at the closest one, making sure it was what she was looking for.

"Drink this!" Oh really, internal bleeding was nothing; shock, shortness of breath. Mackenzie looked sourly at him for a second, then helped push his hand closer to his face. What else was he hiding from her! Only one lung present? Memory loss? Lack of feeling in some of his limbs? Honestly, she would have killed him if he wasn't already in that state.

"And this---" Mackenzie added, grabbing another vial from above her head and handing it to him. This one was to keep him awake: if he had been unconscious at any point, then sleeping was the last thing he should be doing.

Okay, so maybe he'd forgotten about all that purple skin of his.

He winced as the potion burned down his throat, but he just continued to listen to Mackenzie's orders and let her have her way with him. He had hoped she would be having her way with him in bed tonight, when they both reunited after the earthquake and had that supposedly epic night of passionate shagging, but. Sebastian nearly pouted at the fact that he was in too bad of a situation to even attempt to snog his wife. Great. Fuck you, Christopher Loftus.

Sebastian looked up at Mackenzie as she worked, his frown prominent now. He thought he had given up trying to rationalize the mentality of the purebloods that shunned Mackenzie from their lives, but there was always that something that spurred the thoughts. Sebastian could not just believe that they were simply evil, he was too much of a Gryffindor not to have that dumb hope that things would turn out well at the end of the day. But no. Not with Christopher Loftus. The man, an auror, at that, attacked him in broad daylight after a fucking earthquake. Who did that? That was absolutely manic, the man was insane, and he was still allowed into Sebastian's home because Mackenzie trusted him that much.

It was disgusting. Sebastian took another potion and blanched; not only at the taste, but at the fact that he'd silently made the decision that he needed to tell Mackenzie what had really happened in Diagon Alley today.

"Where's Anthony?" Sebastian asked, not sounding overly concerned as he tried to change his mental rambling for the moment. Mackenzie would not be behaving so calmly if she didn't know exactly where their son was.

Mackenzie worked quickly, continuing to search for anything else major that Sebastian had forgotten to 'mention.' There was a painful-looking bruise on his left shoulder that was just going to have to heal itself for the time being, as well as some other minor cuts and bruises she did not have time to focus on, but besides that (and a broken wrist! Did he decide to roll in a pit of sharp, large objects that came crashing down on you at random? They were going to discuss the procedures of taking care of yourself during natural disasters later when he wasn't so delusional) there wasn't too much anything worse than the occurrence that was his lower chest.

"He's---" she started, focusing more on twirling her wand in a circle over his stomach than talking. "He's at--- I left him with Graciela." Mackenzie looked up, and blinked severely for a few moments. Anthony... her thoughts wandered to her son, suddenly feeling a deep yearning to go to him. But it would be impossible for her to leave, now. People were still coming ins, the place was absolutely flooded! She had no idea how she was going to get Sebastian out of here, let alone receive permission to leave herself.

"I just discharged Alex." The thought came to her randomly, and Mackenzie stated it such a matter-of-fact tone it sounded strange. But she figured Sebastian would like to know that. Alex would most likely get home faster than any owl she sent, so that was no longer necessary. She took a deep breath and pushed her hair back as she stood up straight to stretch her legs.

"I'm going to---" Mackenzie began, moving to look away from Sebastian for the first time since she had seen him. She severely doubted there would be any escorts left to bring people home at this point, or the line would be ridiculously long, but perhaps she could find someone. Or maybe Mark would just let her leave--- no, she couldn't do that, it wouldn't be right, not one bit.

"I'll be right back! Don't move," she warned, even sticking a finger out at him as she spoke. But as Mackenzie walked away, glancing over her shoulder a couple of times to make sure he was still sitting there, she decided that maybe it would be better if he stayed here. For professional purposes of course. Absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it terrorized her to think of what else he could get himself into.